
PKf;SENTF-:i) liY 



THE COMPLIMENTS OF 

EDGAR ALDRICH 
ALBERT S. BATCHELLOR 
JOHN M. MITCHELL 



LITERARY EXECUTORS 
OF 

HARRY BINGHAM 



MEMORIAL 

OF 

HON. HARRY BINGHAM, LL.D, 

LAWYER, LEGISLATOR. AUTHOR 
EDITED BY 

HENRY HARRISON METCALF 



under the direction of 

Edgar Aldrich, Albert S. Batchellor. John M. Mitchell 

literary executors 



PRIVATELY PRINTED AND GRATUITOUSLY ISSUED 
CONCORD, N. H., 1910 







-j'icrw. XvtLJvJvU VJ uvi 0»VvC>Lr/v\ JL/i-toJ^ 



SIP !9 I9t« 



INTRODUCTION. 



This compilation of the writings and speeches of Harry Bing- 
ham has been prepared and published in pursuance of a provi- 
sion of his will, which directed that, in a certain event, Edgar 
Aldrich, Albert S. Batchellor and John M. Mitchell should pre- 
pare and publish a memorial volume containing such parts, or 
the whole, of such of his legal arguments and other speeches and 
addresses as they might select, the volume to be printed and 
brought out under their direction. 

It is our understanding that Mr. Bingham intended a gratu- 
itous distribution. It is also our understanding that he intended 
the work as a token of remembrance to his friends and such as 
might reasonably be expected to be interested m his career, with- 
out regard to the question whether they had been for or against 
the doctrines for which he stood. But we have not overlooked 
the fact that we owe a duty under this trust to the great libra- 
ries whose mission it is to assemble all the available works of 
this class for the use of the public, and we have set apart what 
seemed to be an adequate number of volumes for that purpose. 

Harry Bingham's decease occurred September 12, 1900. He 
had reached the age of almost four score years. His labors at 
the bar were unremitting in a period of professional activity 
covering more than fifty years. His habits of research were sys- 
tematic and exhaustive. He was masterful in argument. He was 
resourceful in controversy. He was conscientious and consistent 
in adherence to principle. 

The results of his researches and discussions relating to the 
application and contest of legal principles included a vast and 
diversified range. In this field, as might be expected, his writ- 
ings are in a large measure scattered or lost beyond recovery. 
His contributions to the far-reaching railroad litigation, which 



iv INTRODUCTION. 

occupied the attention of the courts, the Legislature and the peo- 
ple of the state, from 1870 to 1890, and the parts that he acted 
in other great causes have been merged in results which involved 
the efforts of many minds in the direction of corporate and con- 
stitutional development and the permanent establishment of im- 
proved systems of statute and case law. He was a conspicuous 
force in a period in the jurisprudence of the state which was so 
important that it must be regarded as epochal. 

The material for the presentation of his part in what may be 
termed the structural features of this important consummation 
can now be presented only in unsatisfactory fragments. Nothing 
short of a complete and systematic collection of what he pro- 
duced, in research and argument, arranged and read in its logical 
connection with the contributions of others, would adequately 
present the profound influence that he exerted upon men and 
measures, upon courts and Legislatures, upon the development of 
the law, upon the ascertainment and application of principles 
governing the relations of corporations to each other, to the 
state, and to the people. A collection corresponding in any ap- 
preciable degree with the results of his labor and achievement in 
the legal forum would be impossible and has not been attempted. 
He was twenty times a member of the New Hampshire Legis- 
lature. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Peace Convention 
of 1866. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Con- 
ventions of 1872, 1880, 1884 and 1892, and a member of the com- 
mittee on resolutions at each of those conventions. And it is 
needless to say that he exercised an important influence in the 
councils of his party and in the formal declarations of its poli- 
cies. Mr. Bingham 's exposition of his opinions on political ques- 
tions dominant at particular times in the long period in which 
he was a conspicuous and potential factor in public affairs, 
though incomplete, are preserved to an extent which permits of 
an ascertainment of his attitude and convictions in respect to the 
larger problems of his day. He was courageous, outspoken and 
uncompromising in the declaration of his views as to public 
men, and public policies. His letters, his contributions to the 
press, the reports of his speeches in the Legislature and in the 
Constitutional Convention of 1876, his more formal essays and 



INTRODUCTION. y 

the arguments upon which he relied for the vindication of his 
principles, afford data which will permit of no mistake as to his 
position on political issues. 

The transcripts from his political writings present the complete 
text of the original when it appears to be essential, and extracts 
have been employed when they would answer the purpose of a 
fair presentation of the author's statement or argument. 

Mr. Bingham's essays and formal addresses have with few ex- 
ceptions been reproduced in full, and it will be observed that 
in his later years he departed from the treatment of topics tech- 
nically related to the law and his profession, and indulged in 
the discussion of the broader questions of history, sociology, in- 
ternational politics and religion. Thus, as he advanced in years, 
he disclosed a widening rather than a narrowing of the field of 
intellectual activity. 

The editorial arrangement of the book and its preparation for 
publication was committed to Mr. Henry H. Metealf, whose 
special fitness for the task will be recognized, as he was a life- 
long friend, neighbor, and political coadjutor of Mr. Bingham. 

This volume is submitted in the expectation that it will prove 
to be a contribution of interest to Mr. Bingham's contemporaries 
and of value to those who hereafter engage in the investigation 
of events of the half century between 1840 and 1890. 

Littleton, New Hampshire, 'July 17, 1910. 

Edgae Aldeich, 
Albert S. Batchellor, 
'John M. Mitchell. 



EDITOR'S note;. 



It is but just and fitting that, in the presentation of this me- 
morial volume, due credit be given the Hon, Albert S. Batehellor, 
for valuable assistance rendered in the preparation of the work. 
Through his careful research and persevering labor, in securing 
and arranging in chronological order, the great mass of material 
utilized, the editorial work has not only been greatly lightened, 
but unquestionably rendered altogether more complete. While 
this acknowledgement of Mr, Batehellor 's service is justly due 
and cheerfully made, it should be added that his associate lit- 
erary executors — Judge Aldrich and Mr. Mitchell — have been 
equally desirous with himself, and no less earnestly insistent, 
that the completed work should be a thoroughly fitting memorial 
of the great lawyer, true patriot and faithful public servant 
whose life and labor made a deep and lasting impression upon the 
jurisprudence of New Hampshire. 

The Editor. 



CONTENTS. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



PRESS TRIBUTES 



From the Manchester Union 
From the People and Patriot 
From the Concord Monitor 
From the Portsmouth Times 

BAR EULOGIES . 



Memorial ..... 
Eulogy by Hon. Edgar Aldrich 
Eulogy by Hon. John M. Mitchell 
Eulogy by Hon. Irving W. Drew 
Eulogy by H. M. Morse, Esq. . 
Eulogy by Samuel B. Page, Esq. 
Eulogy by W. P. Buckley, Esq. 
Eulogy by Hon. Lewis W. Fling 
Eulogy by Hon. James W. Remick 
Eulogy by Hon. A. S. Batchellor 
Eulogy by Hon. Henry W. Blair 
Eulogy by Hon. Chester B. Jordan 
Reply of the Court, Hon. Robert M. Wallace, 
Justice 



POLITICAL WRITINGS 



Opposition to Town Guaranty of Railroad Bonds 
Address to Democratic Voters of Littleton 
Defence of President Pierce's Administration . 
Denunciation of the "Know Nothing" Party . 



21 

21 
22 

23 

25 

25 
26 
35 
39 
41 
4A 
46 
48 
50 
52 
66 
72 

75 

79 

80 

81 
82 
84 



viii CONTENTS. 

PAGS. 

Arraignment of the Legislature for the Prosti- 
tution OF the Judiciary .... 87 

Caustic Characterization of the Republican 

Party ........ 87! 

Endorsement of Buchanan ^s Nomination . . 88 

Exultation Over Buchanan's Election . . 89 

A Diversion — Welcome to the Spring . . 90 

Hypocrisy of the IVIaine Law Supporters Exposed 92 

Republican Extravagance Condemned . . 92 

Denunciation of Election Bribery ... 93 

The Chandler-Fogg Controversy ... 94 

The Present State of Public Sentiment Towards 
THE Relations of the States and the Federal 
Government (From the Manchester Daily 
Union of February 14, 1883) .... 95 

The Issues at Stake in the State Campaign 
(From the Riverside Monthly, October, 
1890) 100 

LEGISLATIVE SERVICE 105 

First Service Covering the Civil War Period — 

1861 TO 1865 107 

Prominent Associates in the House of 1861 . 108 
First Committee Assignment .... 109 
Democratic Position in the Early Days of the 

Civil War Ill 

Mr. Bingham Speaks at Length Against the 

"Million Dollar Bill" 112 

Moves Amendment ...... 115 

Presents Protest of Minority .... 116 

Opposes Resolutions Favoring Confiscation of 
Property of Confederates .... 121 

Opposes the Unseating of Mr. Coleman of New- 

ington 122 

Resolution in Disapproval of the Order Dis- 
missing Lieutenant Edgerly .... 125 



CONTENTS. ix 

FAQE. 

Mb. Bingham Presents Minority Report Against 
THE Soldiers Voting Bill .... 127 

Presents Minority Report Favoring the Edgerly 
Resolution 127 

Presents the Minority Report of Committee on 
National Affairs Denouncing Executive 
Usurpation and Martial Law .... 128 

Opposes Commutation of Sentence of Thomas 
WiER FOR Murder of Caleb M. Dyer . . 133 

Presents Minority Report Against Soldiers Vot- 
ing Law at August Special Session, 1864 . 136 

Favors Act Providing fob Assumption by the 
State of War Indebtedness of Cities and 
Towns 139 

Favors Gold Payment for Soldiebs . . . 139 

Denounces the Arbitrary Action of Speaker 
Chandler in the Matter of the Governor's 
Veto of the Soldiers Voting Bill . . . 143 

Presents Minobity Repobt Against the Thir- 
teenth Amendment to the Fedebal Constitu- 
tion ........ 145 

Speaks at Length Against the Amendment . 148 

Peesents Minority Report fbom Committee on 
National Affaibs ...... 152 

SuppoBTS Resolution of Thanks to Speakeb Pike 154 

Leads in the Obganization Contest in 1871 . 156 

Opposes Election fob Tenth Senatobial Distbict 158 

Favobs Increased Salaey fob the Attobney Gen- 
eral ........ 161 

Antagonizes Doctob Gallingeb's Pboposition 
That the Administbation Has a Right to Con- 
TEOL Votes of Fedebal Employees . . . 162 

Leads the Majoeity in the Dbmocbatic ''Reob- 

ganization" of 1874 ..... 164 

Leads the Contest in 1874 Against Consolidation 
OF the Boston & Lowell and Lowell & Nashua 
Raileoads 164 



CONTENTS. 

FAGB. 

Defends Governor Weston and Council, in 1875, 
IN THE Celebrated Priest and Proctor Sena- 
torial Matter, Against Orren C. Moore . . 169 

Opposes Arbitrary Unseating op Democratic 
Members 173 

Favors Adequate Salaries for Judges of the 

Supreme Court ...... 173 

Supports Act in Aid op Purity of Elections . 174 

Opposes Unjust Apportionment in 1878 . . 179 

Prepares Amendment Offered by Senator Mann 
to 0. C. Moore's Resolutions on National Af- 
fairs 180 

Opposes Commutation of Death Sentence of 
iJosEPH B. Buzzell ...... 183 

Defends Judiciary Committee Majority Report 
Against Election of United States Senator 
IN 1881 184 

Favors Appropriation for New Hampshire Vet- 
erans' Association ...... 185 

Opposes Exemption of Church Property from 
Taxation ....... 186 

Candidate for President of the Senate in 1883 187 

Made Chairman of Committee on Revision of the 
Laws and Member op the Judiciary Committee 188 

Opposes the Colby Bill ..... 189 

Opposes Abolition of Old School District Sys- 
tem ........ 191 

Speaks Against the Hazen Bill Before the 
Railroad Committee in August, 1887 . . 192 

Advocates a License Law in 1889 . . . 193 

Opposes Exemption of Water Works From Tax- 
ation ........ 193 

Favors Appropriation for The Statue of Gen- 
eral Stark ....... 193 

Presents Resolution of Respect to the Mem- 
ory OF General Marston — Special Session, 
1890 195 



CONTENTS. xi 

PAQB. 

Vainly Opposes Seating "If Entitled" IVIembers 
IN 1891 196 

Favors Australian Ballot Law, Which Is 
Finally Passed, but in Different Form from 
That Which He Reported .... 198 

Concord Monitor's "Farewell" to Mr. Bingham 199 

Appointed Chairman of Committee on Legis- 
lative Department in Constitutional Conven- 
tion OF 1889 201 

Favors Minority Representation . . . 201 

ADDRESSES 203 

The Responsibility for and the Inevitable Con- 
sequences OF THE General Disfranchisement 
of the Southern Whites and the Indis- 
criminate AND Premature Enfranchisement 
OF the Southern Blacks — Address as Presi- 
dent OF THE Democratic State Convention, 
January 5, 1870 203 

Amnesty and Restoration for the South : Peace 
and Reconciliation Between the Sections — 
Address as President of the Democratic State 
Convention, September 11, 1872 . . . 206 

Centennial Address, Delivered at Littleton, 
N. H., July 4, 1876 — Development of Our Re- 
publican Government — Corruption Its Great- 
est Danger ....... 212 

Oration Delivered Before Marshal Sanders 
Post, Littleton, May 31, 1880 — Establishment 
of the Union — Adoption of the Constitu- 
tion — Resulting Controversies — Outbreak of 
Rebellion — Result of the War — The Con- 
stitution Unchanged Except as to Slavery — 
Importance of Maintaining Its Integrity . 222 

Hon, Andrew Salter Woods — A Memoir Con- 
tributed TO THE Public Exercises at Dart- 
mouth College, June 23, 1880, in Commemora- 



CONTENTS. 

PAflE. 

TiON OP Several. Judges, Then Recently De- 
ceased ........ 235 

Certain Political Conditions and Tendencies 
Which Imperil the Integrity and Independ- 
ence of the Judiciary — Annual Address Be- 
fore the Grafton and Coos Bar Association 
at Lancaster, December 29, 1882 . . . 240 

The Life and Democracy of John Hatch George 

— Address Delivered at Manchester Before 

the Granite State Club, June 27, 1888 . . 256 
Tribute to the Memory of Gen. Gilman Marston 

— Delivered Before the Grafton and Coos Bab 
Association at the Annual Meeting at Woods- 
ville, January 30, 1891 275 

Nathaniel W. Westgate — Remarks by Mr. Bing- 
ham AT THE Meeting of the Grafton and Coos 
Bar Association at Woodsville, January 30, 
1891 280 

Hon. William Spencer Ladd — Memorial Ad- 
dress Delivered Before the Grafton and Coos 
Bar Association at Plymouth, January 29, 
1892 283 

Origin and Theory of Our Institutions: Im- 
portance OF A Strict Observance of Constitu- 
tional Limitations — Opening Address Before 
the Grafton and Coos Bar Association at Ber- 
lin, January 26, 1894 294 

President's Address, Delivered at the Annual 
Meeting of the Grafton and Coos Bar Associ- 
ation AT Littleton, February 14, 1895 — A 
Review of the World's Progress . . . 305 

The Rights and Responsibilities of the United 
States in Respect to the International Rela- 
tions OF THE Lesser Republics of America and 
the Great Pow^ers of Europe — Address Before 
Marshal Sanders Post, No. 48, G. A. R., at Lit- 
tleton, December 26, 1895 .... 312 



CONTENTS. xiii 

FAGB. 

The Safety of the Republic the Supreme Law — 
President's Address at the Meeting of the 
Grafton and Coos Bar Association at Woods- 
ville, January 31, 1896 ..... 333 
Consistent Adherence to Democratic Princi- 
ples — Two Addresses by Mr. Bingham; the 
First as President of the Democratic State 
Convention at Concord, May 20, 1896 ; the Sec- 
ond as President of the ** National" Demo- 
cratic Ratification Meeting at Manchester, 
October 6, 1896. 

The Concord Address 348 

The Manchester Address .... 354 
The New Education of Woman — Address Deliv- 
ered Before the Grafton and Coos Bar Associ- 
ation AT Plymouth, January 29, 1897 . . 364 
Influence of Religion Upon Human Progress — 
Annual Address Before the New Hampshire 
Historical Society at Concord, June 9, 1897 . 379 
The Annexation of Haw ah: A Right and a 
Duty — President's Annual Address Before 
THE Grafton and Coos Bar Assocl^tion at 
WooDSviLLE, January 28, 1898 .... 403 



ARGUMENT 



421 



Closing Argument Against the Hazen Bill and 
IN Favor of the Atherton Bell Before the 
Railroad Committee of the Legislature, Au- 
gust 12 AND 13, 1887 ^1 

CORRESPONDENCE 485 

Franklin Pierce — A Letter Written by Harry 
Bingham to David Cross in the Winter of 
1899-1900 ^^ 

Acrostic — Sent by Wilijam J. Bellows to 

Harry Bingham in November, 1898 . . . 489 



CONTENTS. 



Eeply of Harry Bingham to William J. Bellows, 
December 3, 1898 

Poem on "The Courts of Grafton County Fifty 
Years Ago," Sent, with a Letter by William 
3. Bellows, to Mr. Bingham, January 1, 1900 

Me. Bingham's Reply to Mr. Bellows 



490 



491 
493 



APPRECIATION 



By Hon. Jeremiah Smith, LL. D. 
By Hon. Hosea W. Parker 
By Hon. William E. Chandler . 
By Hon. Samuel C. Eastman . 
By Hon. Edwin G. Eastman 



495 

495 

499 
502 
503 
505 




a^yvy /(^^i^yL^n^^^^^<^^^ 



At 60 years. 



HARRY BINGHAM. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

Harry Bingham, like many other eminent lawyers and dis- 
tinguished citizens of New Hampshire, was a native of the state 
of Vermont.* Born in the town of Concord, Essex County, March 
30, 1821, he was the third son of Warner and Lucy (Wheeler) 
Bingham. Two brothers, older than himself, were John, a 
farmer, who died in Wisconsin in 1849, and Lorenzo, a merchant 
of Lower Waterford, Vt., who passed away seven years later. 
Lucy A., a sister next younger than Harry, was the wife of C. 
S. S. Hill, a California merchant. Two younger brothers were 
Hon. George A. Bingham of Littleton and Hon. Edward F. Bing- 
ham of Ohio, subsequently chief justice of the Supreme Court 
of the District of Columbia, t A sister, still younger, was Edith 
C, wife of Ira H. Ballou, of Ira H. Ballon & Co., wholesale 
produce dealers of South Market Street, Boston. 

But, notwithstanding the fact of his Vermont birth, Mr. Bing- 
ham was really of New Hampshire origin, inasmuch as his father, 



*Among "Vermont born men who have attained prominence at the 
bar in New Hampshire and become otherwise distinguished in public 
affairs may be named, aside from Harry Bingham and his brother, 
George A., Edmund Burke, Harry Hibbard, Henry A. Bellows, William 
L. Foster, William Heywood, Jacob Benton, Ellery A. Hibbard, Albert 
S. Wait, Ossian Ray, Henry B. Atherton, Charles F. Stone, William H. 
Mitchell, Frank S. Streeter and Daniel C. and James W. Remick. 

tGeorge Azro, eldest brother of Harry Bingham, was born in Con- 
cord, Vt, April 25, 1826, and died at Littleton, January 22, 1895. He 
was educated in Vermont schools and academies, studied law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1848. He practised four years at Lyndon, Vt., 
removing to Littleton in 1852, where he continued until death. He was 
twice elected to the House of Representatives in the State Legislature, 
and twice to the Senate. He was a delegate to the Democratic National 
Convention in 1860, and the Democratic candidate for Congi-ess in the 
old Third District in 1880. He was appointed an associate justice of 
the Supreme Court in 1876, serving until October, 1880, and was again 
appointed in December, 1884, continuing until March, 1891. He had 
served as a member of the Littleton Board of Education, as a trustee of 



2 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Warner Bingham, had removed in early childhood from Cornish, 
N. H., where he was born in 1789, to Concord, Vt., with his par- 
ents, who were among the early settlers of the latter town; 
while his mother was a daughter of the Granite State — a native 
of the town of Chesterfield. Warner Bingham was a substantial 
farmer, a man of sterling character and strong influence in the 
community. A Democrat in politics, he was with the minority 
in town as well as state; but the people of Essex County dem- 
onstrated their esteem for his character and confidence in his 
ability by electing him as their representative in the State Senate 
in 1842 and 1843, and as a judge of the county court in 1844. 
His wife, Lucy Wheeler, daughter of John and Lucy (Holmes) 
Wheeler, who had also removed to Concord, was a woman of rare 
mental endowments and remarkable strength of character, from 
whom her son, Harry, inherited many of his characteristics. She 
died in the autumn of 1839 and he afterward married Laura 
Rankin of Danville, Vt., by whom he had three more children — 
two sons and a daughter. He died in Bethlehem, N. H., where 
he had removed some years previously, February 12, 1872. 

The early life of Harry Bingham was passed in about the 
same manner as that of most sons of New England farmers of 



the State Normal School, as a director of the Littleton National Bank, 
and president of the Littleton Savings Bank. 

Edward Franklin Bingham was born in Concord, Vt, August 13, 1828, 
and died at Union, W. Va., September 3, 1907. He was educated in the 
public schools, at Peacham (Vt.) Academy, and Marietta College, Ohio. 
He read law with Joseph Miller at Chilicothe, O., and with his brother, 
Harry, being with the latter at Littleton from May, 1848, till September, 
1849. He was admitted to the bar in Ohio, in 1850, and located in 
practice at McArthur, Vinton County, where he continued eleven years. 
He was prosecuting attorney for Vinton County for thi-ee terms, and 
served in the State Legislature in 1856 and 1857. Removing to Colum- 
bus, he served as city solicitor from 1867 till 1871, and was also a 
member of the Board of Education from 1863 to 1868. In the latter 
year he was chairman of the Ohio Democratic State Committee, and a 
delegate to the Democratic National Convention, as he also had been 
in 1860. He was again a delegate in the St. Louis convention of 1876. 
In 1873 he was chosen a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the 
Fifth Judicial District of Ohio, and reelected, serving till 1887, when 
he was appointed by President Cleveland chief justice of the Supreme 
Court of the District of Columbia, which position he held until his 
resignation in 1903. It is safe to say that no family in the country 
has ever produced three brothers equal in eminence and ability, as 
members of the legal profession, to Harry, George A. and Edward F. 
Bingham. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 3 

that day, in moderate circumstances, except that he developed a 
strong inclination for study and made the most of the limited ad- 
vantages of the district school. At an early age he determined to 
secure a college education ; and he had so diligently applied him- 
self to his studies during the brief terms of the common school, 
with a few weeks at select school on one or two occasions, that 
when he was seventeen years of age it required but a year's acad- 
emic training to fit him for entrance at Dartmouth, which he se- 
cured at the well-known Lyndon, Vt., Academy. Entering college 
with the class graduating in 1843,* he applied himself to the solid 
work laid out for the student in those days, when intellectual 
training was the main thing sought, and ' ' athletic culture ' ' was 
no essential part of the curriculum. It may be added that his 
college life was characterized rather by that substantial attain- 
ment which furnished the groundwork for success in his future 
professional career, than that brilliant leadership in the class 
room, which seldom materializes in future intellectual triumphs. 
By the ordinary tests of scholarship his class standing was good ; 
while among classmates he won regard for that honesty, sin- 
cerity, contempt for hypocrisy and sham and that unswerving 
courage of conviction which characterized his entire after life. 
Dartmouth College was at this time under the administration of 
President Nathan Lord, and the strong character and sterling 
precepts of that eminent and virile educator, theologian and 
publicist, whose impress upon the minds of the young men gen- 
erally who came under his instruction was no less marked than 
that of any of his compeers or successors, became a vital and 
lasting force in the life of Mr. Bingham. 

Immediately after graduation from college, having previously 
determined to enter the legal profession, he commenced the study 
of law in his native town, taking books for that purpose from the 

♦Among Mr. Bingham's associates in the class of 1843, at Dartmouth, 
were the late James O. Adams, Secretary of the State Board of Agri- 
culture, Col. John B. Clarke, of the Manchester Mirror, Augustus 0. 
Brewster and Robert I. Burbank, well known Boston lawyers; Col. 
Francis S. Fiske of the Second N. H. Vols.; Judge Thomas W. Freelon 
of San Francisco; the late Congressman Daniel W. Gooch of Massachu- 
setts; Brig.-Gen. Joshua J. Guppey of Wisconsin; Hon. Lyman D. Ste- 
vens of Concord, and three sons of President Lord — Henry C, Samuel 
A., and William H., who all became prominent in professional life. 



4 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

office of David Hibbard, Esq., father of Hon. Harry Hibbard, 
who was a resident of that town. He subsequently pursued his 
studies for some time in the office of George C. and Edward 
Cahoon at Lyndon, Vt., and completed the same with Harry 
Hibbard at Bath. 

During the time of his college course, as well as his prepara- 
tory training and his subsequent professional study, Mr. Bing- 
ham was engaged winters in the customary avocation of the am- 
bitious young New Englander of that generation who had his 
own way to make in the world — teaching school. He commenced 
this work, in fact, in the winter of his sixteenth year, and con- 
tinued each winter, until his admission to the bar, teaching with 
success in his native town of Concord, in Burke, East St. Johns- 
bury, Woodstock, Waterford, Wells River and other places. 

He was admitted to the bar at Lancaster at the May term of 
court, in 1846, after a rigorous examination, having then just 
passed his twenty-fifth birthday. Littleton, then as now a lead- 
ing northern New Hampshire town, was regarded as a promising 
professional field. Moreover the leading Democrats of the town 
were on the lookout for a lawyer of their own political faith, and 
had applied to Harry Hibbard, then a recognized leader of the 
party in that section, who had already been honored with elec- 
tion as speaker of the State House of Representatives, to recom- 
mend some promising Democratic lawyer of ability and integ- 
rity to settle in the town. Mr. Hibbard, aware as he was of Mr. 
Bingham's talent and ability and the ample equipment which he 
possessed, notwithstanding his comparative youth, and knowing 
very well from his acquaintance with the town and its people 
what manner of man was wanted, unhesitatingly recommended 
him to the Littleton inquirers as just the man of whom they 
were in search ; and so it came about that he located there, to the 
ultimate complete satisfaction of those who were looking for a 
Democratic lawyer of character and ability, if not to his own 
personal advantage. As for the latter it is sufficient to say that 
he was himself content with his situation and environment, and 
for more than half a century gave the best that was in him to his 
profession, his party, the community and the state. 

It was in September, 1846, that Mr. Bingham took up his resi- 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 5 

dence in Littleton and opened an office for the practice of his 
profession. Unlike some young men, upon admission to the bar 
he did not sit down in idleness, awaiting the arrival of clients, 
but continued his studies, extending his researches into every 
department of legal science, familiarizing himself thoroughly 
with the principles of law, in the abstract and in their applica- 
tion to cases, as set forth in the reported decisions, with the forms 
of practice and the rules of procedure, so that, when called upon 
to grapple with any case arising, he was well equipped for the 
occasion and ready to carry it through to a successful result, if, 
under the circumstances, success was fairly attainable. So 
thorough and complete was his preparation, secured in the early 
years of his practice, when business was not always pressing and 
opportunity for study and consideration was presented, that it 
was said by the late Chief Justice Perley, toward the close of the 
life of that eminent jurist, that there was no other man at the 
bar, in New Hampshire, who when suddenly called upon to deal 
with an intricate question of law, or to sustain a position with no 
authorities in reach, could so readily master the situation, from 
his own resources, upon the basis of principle and analogy, as 
could Mr. Bingham. 

When Mr. Bingham commenced practice in Littleton, the 
Grafton County bar, as well as that of Coos with which he was 
also brought into close relationship, was remarkable for its 
strength. Its membership included such men as Leonard Wil- 
cox of Orford, Josiah Quincy of Kumney, Jonathan Kittredge 
of Canaan, and Ira Goodall of Bath, then in the fullness of their 
power. Andrew S. Woods, of Bath, had gone upon the bench, 
but Harry Hibbard of that town had but fairly entered upon his 
brilliant career. Charles R. Morrison was in practice at Haver- 
hill, and Jonathan E. Sargent at Canaan, soon removing to 
Wentworth. In Littleton, as his chief competitor he found the 
late Chief Justice Henry A. Bellows, then in full practice, while 
in Coos County, John S. Wells, then at Lancaster, the most bril- 
liant orator, save Franklin Pierce, known in the state in the mid- 
dle of the last century, stood at the front, with Hiram A. 
Fletcher, William Burns and Jacob Benton well settled in prac- 
tice. Associated with and pitted against such men as these, Mr. 



6 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Bingham took rank with the foremost at a very early period in 
his professional career. Without noting the details of his prog- 
ress as a lawyer it is sufficient to say that probably no lawyer 
in the state was engaged in the trial of so many causes, during 
the fifty years of his active practice at the bar, as was Mr. Bing- 
ham, and certainly no one was more generally successful; nor 
has there ever been a New Hampshire lawyer whose advice was 
more extensively sought or more safely followed, whether by 
attorney or client. 

There was scarcely an important case tried in Grafton County 
for a period of forty years at least, in which Mr. Bingham was 
not engaged on one side or the other as attorney or counsel; 
while in Coos his services were in nearly as great demand. His 
practice extended, however, into all parts of the state, quite 
largely into Vermont, and even into New York, and into the 
federal as well as the state courts. There were few lawyers of 
prominence in New Hampshire in the period between 1855 and 
1895, whose lot it had not been at some time to encounter Mr. 
Bingham as an antagonist at the bar, and no man thus placed in 
regard to him ever failed thereafter to entertain a most profound 
respect for his abilities. Some ten years after commencing 
practice, while yet a young man, he met the Hon. Daniel Clark, 
then in the meridian of his power and the acknowledged head of 
the Hillsborough County bar, in a strongly contested case in the 
court of that county, and not only won a victory for his client, 
but proved his ability to contend successfully with the ablest 
and most experienced among the lawyers of the state. 

A review of the important eases in the trial of which Mr. 
Bingham was engaged, on the one side or the other, in the course 
of his career, would transcend the proper limits of this sketch, 
and would be, moreover, entirely superfluous, since it would be of 
no particular interest to the non-professional reader, while the 
lawyer will readily find the record thereof in the New Hamp- 
shire reports, covering a period of fifty years, and constituting 
no inconsiderable portion thereof. The more important of them 
all, it may be noted, were the celebrated Concord Railroad cases, 
in all of which he was prominently engaged, involving questions 
of vital interest and importance, the determination of which 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 7 

settled the railroad policy of the state, so far as the courts are 
concerned at least. 

While his most important work was done in civil causes, his 
services were frequently in demand in criminal trials. He was 
connected with most of the capital cases heard in his day, in his 
own county, appearing in each for the defense, except in the 
case of State v. Mills, for the murder of Maxwell at Franconia, 
in which he appeared for the state. He defended John Scannell 
of Bethlehem, tried for the murder of his wife; Moses B. Saw- 
yer, for the murder of Mrs. John Emerson of Piermont ; Martin 
V. Dickey for the murder of Eastman at Ashland, and Williams 
and Steere for the murder of Orrin Steere at Warren, and with a 
successful outcome in each case. 

During the greater portion of his life in Littleton Mr. Bing- 
ham was the regularly retained counsel for the town, maintaining 
and defending its interests in whatever legal controversies it be- 
came engaged, questions of no small financial importance fre- 
quently being involved, and his services in this connection were 
appreciated as most valuable by all who had the interests of the 
town at heart. He was also leading counsel for President Bart- 
lett of Dartmouth College, during the progress of the inves- 
tigation instituted by the New York Alumni Association repre- 
sented by Judge Fullerton, Sanford H. Steele and Asa W. Ten- 
ney, and in which contest he proved himself the peer of any of 
his eminent antagonists. 

Mr, Bingham was a thorough master of every branch of the 
law involved in the ordinary practice of our New England 
courts; and in this respect his location in what may be classed 
as a country region, instead of a great metropolis, where the 
practice is to a great extent specialized, which some of his friends 
and admirers deplored because of the fact that it deprived him 
of opportunity for national distinction in connection with liti- 
gation of vast importance, may have proved advantageous, on 
the whole, in insuring a fuller and broader development of his 
powers than would have resulted had his practice covered a less 
general field. Whenever he took up a case, whatever the magni- 
tude of the interests involved or the financial ability of his 
client, he gave it unstinted care and attention, laboring with un- 



8 ' HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

remitting zeal for a successful outcome. As an advocate he was 
not eloquent, in the ordinary sense of the term, but he was re- 
markably strong and effective. His thorough knowledge of the 
law, his complete mastery of the facts in the case, his manifest 
devotion to the cause of his client, his concise, comprehensive, 
direct and forceful manner of statement, carried conviction to 
the jury where pathetic appeals and finely rounded periods would 
have had no effect. In power of analysis and clearness of rea- 
soning he was unsurpassed, and court as well as jury never failed 
to accord him that most careful as well as respectful attention 
which is generally essential as well as conducive to conviction. 
In manner of speech and habit of thought, he is said by those 
familiar with the characteristics of both to have closely re- 
sembled that most distinguished lawyer, as well as statesman, of 
his day — Daniel "Webster — as well as in his commanding person- 
ality, his imposing figure, striking features and large, deep-set 
penetrating eyes. 

During the first six years of his professional career, Mr. Bing- 
ham was without a partner, but in July, 1852, his brother, 
George Azro, who had peen practising for a time at Lyndon, 
Vt., came to Littleton, and the two formed a co-partnership 
under the firm name of H. & G. A. Bingham, which continued 
until 1859, when it was merged in the firm of "Woods & Binghams, 
Ex-Chief Justice Woods and his son, Edward, of Bath, asso- 
ciating themselves with the Binghams, with offices in both Bath 
and Littleton. This arrangement continued until 1862, when 
the firm of H. & G. A. Bingham was reestablished, and main- 
tained, in fact till 1870, but nominally till 1874, when it was for- 
mally dissolved, each member opening an independent office. In 
this latter year Mr. Bingham formed a partnership with John 
M. Mitchell, now of Concord, who had completed his legal studies 
in the office. In July, 1879, Albert S. Batchellor, who had also 
pursued his studies with the firm, was admitted to the partner- 
ship, the firm name being changed to Bingham, Mitchell and 
Batchellor. Two years later, William H. Mitchell, a brother of 
John M., another student of the office, also became one of the 
firm, subsequently known as Bingham, Mitchells and Batchellor. 
In 1881, however, John M. Mitchell had removed to Concord, 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 9 

where an office was opened under the firm name of Bingham & 
Mitchell, Mr. Bingham spending some time in both places for 
several years. John M. Mitchell withdrew, after a time, from 
the Littleton firm, but Mr. Bingham's name was connected with 
each up to the time of his death, although he had some time 
previously ceased to take any active part in the ordinary trans- 
actions of either. 

While no lawyer in New Hampshire was ever more conscien- 
tiously devoted to his profession than Mr. Bingham, or less a 
politician in the ordinary sense of the term, and while he rarely 
held any public office aside from service in the Legislature of the 
state, and in positions of party leadership, few men in the state 
have ever occupied so prominent a position in political life as 
he, or so thoroughly commanded the admiration, confidence and 
respect of the people in that relation. A Democrat from early 
youth, of the uncompromising Jeffersonian type, his devotion to 
Democratic principles, and the Democratic party in support of 
those principles, grew with his growth and strengthened with 
his strength, until his political convictions, like his profession 
itself, became, as it were, a part of his very being. This was the 
result, undoubtedly, of his legal study, which had been broad 
and philosophical, rather than limited and technical in char- 
acter. He had studied law in its relation to, and as the basis 
of, human government, and his investigations familiarized him 
■udth the history of government in all ages. Particularly was he 
conversant with the growth of the English common law, which is 
the framework of our legal system, and with the attendant and 
correlative development of constitutional liberty. 

When he settled in Littleton he was the only Democratic 
lawyer in town, and naturally became active and prominent in 
the councils of his party at an early day. The Whig party was 
then in control of town affairs; but with the general decadence 
of that organization in the country at large, the Littleton De- 
mocracy, strengthened by Mr. Bingham's wise counsels and tire- 
less personal efforts, gradually came into the ascendency, carry- 
ing the town, first, in 1852, and continuing in control for a long 
series of years. A Democratic newspaper was established in 
that year, and to its columns, editorially and otherwise, he con- 



10 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

tributed quite extensively, for several years. It was not, how- 
ever, until 1861, that Mr. Bingham became a representative from 
his town in the General Court. The Civil War had then com- 
menced in earnest, and then, as throughout its continuance, 
political excitement ran high and party spirit was intense, on ac- 
count of conflicting views as to the responsibility for the contest 
and the manner in which it should be conducted on the part of 
the federal government. Although a new member Mr. Bingham 
took rank, at once, with the ablest in the House, and was accorded, 
from the start, the leadership on the Democratic side — a position 
which he held, by universal recognition, through his entire legis- 
lative experience. He was reelected to the House in 1862, when 
he was the Democratic candidate for speaker, also in 1863, 1864, 
1865, 1868, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 
1881, 1889 and 1891. For two terms, covering the period from 
1883 and 1887, he represented the Second or Grafton District in 
the State Senate. His legislative career covered a longer period of 
service than that of any other man of his time in the state ; while 
his influence upon the work of legislation far surpassed that of 
any of his compeers. On the floor of the House, and in the judic- 
iary committee, of which he was a member each year of his service, 
and chairman in 1871 and 1874, in which years the Democrats 
were in control of that body, he always occupied a leading posi- 
tion, and that not only as respecting his own party, for Republi- 
cans as well as Democrats had come to place the fullest confidence 
in his judgment and sagacity in all matters not pertaining to 
politics, and in all legislation not of partisan import or bearing 
he exerted greater influence than any other member of either 
party. 

He had many characteristics in common with that other able 
and distinguished lawyer and legislator, with whom he served 
many years in the House, and between whom and himself the 
most cordial and friendly relations were always maintained — 
Gen. Gilman Marston of Exeter. Like General Marston, he 
never engaged in the discussion of trifling questions, and took 
no interest in the petty measures that too often occupied the at- 
tention of the House. He never advocated a measure which he 
did not believe to be just, and conducive to the welfare of the 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 11 

state and the people ; and when he spoke he never failed to com- 
mand the attention of all, for he spoke squarely to the point 
and with the earnestness of absolute conviction, seldom failing 
to impress his hearers with the soundness of his views and the 
strength of his position. 

With the manipulation of machine politics, as ordinarily un- 
derstood, Mr. Bingham had nothing to do, either for his own 
advancement or that of any other man. His political services 
were always rendered in a straightforward manner, from devo- 
tion to principle and for the good of the cause alone. Indeed, 
his utter self abnegation was often the occasion of deep regret 
on the part of his friends. His party, however, did not fail to 
manifest, repeatedly, its appreciation of his sterling worth and 
commanding abilities. He received the Democratic nomination 
for representative in Congress from his district (the old Third) 
in 1865 and again in 1867, his successful Republican opponents 
having been, respectively, James W. Patterson and Jacob Ben- 
ton. He was the nominee of the Democratic party in the Legis- 
lature, for United States senator, in 1870 against Aaron H. 
Cragin; in 1872 against Bainbridge Wadleigh; in 1879 against 
Henry W. Blair and again in 1885; against Austin F. Pike in 
1883, and against William E. Chandler in 1887 and 1889. As 
no man of his time had served his party, his town and the state 
so frequently and so ably in the Legislature, so no man in the 
state had been so often honored by his party with its nomination 
for the highest office which that body has at its disposal. Nor is 
it too much to add that thousands of independent citizens have 
regretted the arbitrary partisan considerations that deprived the 
state and nation of his services in that greatest legislative body 
in the country and the world — the Senate of the United States 
—where his commanding legal ability, intellectual power and 
comprehensive knowledge of the history and science of govern- 
ment would shortly have given him rank with its foremost mem- 
bers. In these respects, and in all the essential elements of real 
statesmanship he was the peer of Trumbull, Edmunds, Bayard, 
Thurman, Carpenter, Hendricks, Conkling or Hoar, and had he 
been called, through the mutations of party politics, to represent 
New Hampshire in that exalted body, the influence of the Granite 



12 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

State would have been felt, through his incumbency and service, 
as in former days, surpassing that of many a larger state. 

Mr. Bingham held no appointive office, state or national, ex- 
cept that of special agent of the Treasury Department, for a 
time under the administration of President Johnson. He was 
nominated by Glovernor Weston, in 1874, for chief justice of 
the Superior Court of Judicature created by the Legislature when 
the judiciary system of the state was remodelled by the Legis- 
lature that year, but the nomination failed to secure the requi- 
site support in the executive council, through factional hos- 
tility controlling the action of certain members, and the appoint- 
ment finally went to the Hon. Edmund L. Gushing of Charles- 
town. Subsequently he declined an appointment as associate 
justice, tendered by Governor Head in 1880. Aside from the 
positions previously mentioned, he held no public office what- 
ever, except that of member of the board of education in Union 
School District of Littleton for the first three years after its 
organization, that of quartermaster of the Thirty-Second 
Regiment in the old state militia in 1849, and as aide-de-camp 
on the brigade staff of Gen. E. 0. Kenney in 1851. 

In the councils of the Democratic party of New Hampshire, 
in conventions and committees, he was prominent for forty years, 
because his services in such connection were sought and com- 
manded. While seldom heard upon the stump, it being a field 
of effort decidedly foreign to his taste or inclination, whenever 
he did appear before the people to advocate the cause of his 
party or the claims of its candidates, he spoke with the plainness 
of diction, the logical power and the straightforward earnestness 
that carried conviction. He was almost invariably a delegate 
from his town in the Democratic State Convention, and a mem- 
ber of its committee on resolutions, his judgment largely con- 
trolling in the shaping of the platform when any question arose. 
He served as a member of the Democratic State Committee many 
years. He was a delegate from New Hampshire to the famous 
Union or Peace Convention in Philadelphia, during the admin- 
istration of President Johnson. He was a member of the Na- 
tional Democratic Convention in New York, in 1868, which nomi- 
nated Horatio Seymour for president, serving as an alternate 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 13 

in the place of Hon. Josiah Minot, then the New Hampshire 
member of the National Democratic Committee, to which place 
he was himself at that time chosen for the next four years. He 
was a delegate to the Baltimore convention in 1872, which nomi- 
nated Horace Greeley ; to the Cincinnati convention which nomi- 
nated General Hancock, in 1880, and to the Chicago conventions 
nominating Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892. In all these 
national conventions he was the New Hampshire member of the 
committee on resolutions. He presided over the regular state 
conventions of his party in 1870 and 1878, and the delegate and 
electoral conventions in 1872 and 1896. A prominent feature 
of his address on assuming the chair in the latter convention 
was an able and earnest presentation of the "sound currency" or 
gold standard doctrine to which the Democracy of the East was 
so devotedly attached, believing its maintenance fundamentally 
essential to the national welfare. When, therefore, the national 
convention of the party, at Chicago, soon after, adopted a plat- 
form in direct contravention of this doctrine, in compliance with 
the preponderating demands of the West and South, Mr. Bing- 
ham with thousands of other Democrats, not only in the East 
but in all sections, was sorely disappointed and deeply grieved, 
regarding such action as inconsistent and in contravention of 
genuine Democratic principles. He had never before broken 
with his party, whatever his dissatisfaction with its course in 
some directions ; but when, later, the state convention, against 
his earnest protest and that of prominent associates, specifically 
endorsed the platform adopted by the national convention, he, 
with other life-long Democrats, withdrew from the convention, 
not in anger but in sorrow, and was afterwards identified with 
the so-called "gold" Democratic movement which organized the 
convention at Indianapolis, that nominated Generals John M. 
Palmer and Simon B. Buckner for president and vice president 
on a gold standard platform. Mr. Bingham presided at a mass 
convention in Manchester ratifying this ticket and platform and 
headed the Palmer and Buckner electoral ticket in this state. 
He had also been one of the Democratic nominees for presidential 
elector in 1864 and 1888. 

Mr. Bingham was a member of the Kappa Kappa Kappa 



14 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Greek letter society at Dartmouth College, of the New Hamp- 
shire Historical Society, the Pilgrim Society, the New Hamp- 
shire Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He 
was also president of the Grafton and Coos County Bar Associa- 
tion from 1893 till his decease. He was for a time a director of 
the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad. In 1880 he received 
from Dartmouth College the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 

In his early life at college Mr. Bingham's associates gave him 
the title or appellation of "Judge," and through all his life he 
continued to be more frequently addressed by that name than 
any other. Indeed, it was rarely that any one — friend, acquaint- 
ance or comparative stranger — aware of his identity, ever ac- 
costed him in any other way. Although he had two brothers 
who were judges in important courts, were the three ever to- 
gether, in a room full of people, and the name "Judge Bing- 
ham" called, nobody would have thought of any other than 
Harry Bingham as being addressed. And his presence, bearing 
and manner confirmed the fitness of the appellation. Emi- 
nently fitted as he was for service in the National Senate, he 
would have been no less an ornament to the bench of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and a power for justice in that au- 
gust tribunal, had it been his lot to be called to such service. 

In his later years he devoted much attention and labor to con- 
structive literature and was the author of many addresses and 
essays upon various topics covering a wide range of thought and 
investigation. It is unnecessary to repeat the titles or subjects 
considered, in this connection, since the various productions, so 
far as they have been found available, are presented in full in 
the following pages of this volume, along with such other of his 
writings as have been deemed appropriate for preservation. It 
is to be regretted that there is practically no record of many of 
his best and strongest intellectual efforts. A large proportion 
of his speeches in the Legislature, the constitutional convention, 
and elsewhere, as well as of his legal arguments, addresses to the 
jury, etc., were entirely oral, never having been reduced to 
writing, and no stenographic report of the same ever having 
been made. Indeed, some of his most powerful and effective 
speeches, in the argument of questions arising during the prog- 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 15 

ress of trials at law, and especially in legislative debate were 
necessarily entirely unpremeditated, made upon the spur of the 
moment, yet never failing to disclose the wealth and power of the 
resources at his command. Of his final argument before the 
Supreme Court, in the celebrated case of the State v. Jewett, in 
January, 1901, involving the right or duty of the clerk of the 
House of Representatives in making up the roll of that body 
as regarded the names of the so-called " if-entitled " members, 
there is absolutely no report preserved, beyond the most meager 
newspaper outline. 

Mr. Bingham was unmarried, and, naturally, did not enter so 
generally into the pleasures of social life, or form so many of the 
ties of acquaintanceship and the more intimate relations growing 
out of the same, as might otherwise have been the case. Yet he 
was in no sense a recluse, nor of the reserved, uncompanionable 
spirit which some may have imagined. However he may have 
at first impressed the stranger, he was known by his friends, 
and found by any with whom he came in close contact, to be one 
of the most approachable of men, genial, frank, open-hearted, 
companionable, and thoroughly democratic, in the full sense of 
the term. He obtruded his opinions or advice upon no one, but 
when the same were sought, in any proper direction, they were 
freely given, and found, almost invariably, of more than ordinary 
value, whether bearing upon matters of private interest or public 
concern. No man ever had the welfare of the community in 
which he lived more thoroughly at heart, or took a deeper in- 
terest in all measures calculated to promote its material pros- 
perity, educational progress and moral uplift. 

Reared in the country, inured to farm labor in youth, and 
spending his entire life practically in the midst of an agricul- 
tural people, his clientele being composed largely of the farmers 
of his own and surrounding towns, the interests of agriculture 
ever found in him a strong and ready champion. Indeed, for 
more than forty years he had been himself the owner of a fine 
farm in the town of Bethlehem, some three miles out from Lit- 
tleton village, and to the management and improvement of which 
he directed his own attention in such leisure time as he found at 
command. Toward the close of his life he became interested in 



16 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL, 

orange growing in Florida, where he spent some time in the late 
winter and early spring for several years, and where he became 
the owner of considerable real estate, including a fine orange grove. 
While connected with no religious organization or society, and 
rarely attending church services, Mr. Bingham was by no means 
an irreligious man. On the contrary he had a profound rever- 
ence for the general doctrines and principles of Christianity, 
and a strong and pronounced regard for the institutions based 
thereon, as established by our New England ancestry, divested 
of the superstitions incident to the time in which they originated. 
His broad tolerance in religious matters, however, was always 
strikingly manifest. Forms and professions were of little ac- 
count in his estimation. Conduct and character counted more 
with him than creed or formula; but he recognized the impor- 
tance of some fixed religious conviction as essential to good citi- 
zenship and fully rounded manhood, and he impressed this senti- 
ment as forcibly upon the minds of students* in his office, and 
friends with whom he associated, as he did that of regard for the 
sanctions of law or the demands of patriotism. He contributed 
generously, according to his means, toward the maintenance of 
religious worship in the community in which he lived, all denomi- 
nations receiving material assistance at his hands. Indeed, he 
was an early and liberal promoter of the enterprise through 
which a Catholic church was erected in Littleton, recognizing the 
value of church influence among all classes in promoting the 
best interests of the community and the welfare of the state and 
nation. While, as has been said, he cared little personally for 
forms and creeds, his individual inclination, so far as manifest, 
led him to prefer the service of the English, or Protestant Epis- 
copal church, doubtless principally from the fact that, during all 
the exciting periods of political agitation in this country, the 
clergy of that denomination had more completely refrained from 
any active part therein than those of any other Protestant sect. 



♦Among the many men who enjoyed the benefit of Mr. Bingham's 
instruction as students in his office were his brother, Edward F. Bing- 
ham, Samuel B. Page, late of Woodsville, Clinton Rowell, of St. Louis, 
Hons. John M. and William H. Mitchell, and Albert S. Batchellor, all 
subsequently his partners; Dexter D. Dow, clerk of the court for Graf- 
ton County, Burns P. Hodgman, clerk of the United States District 
Court, and the late William P. Buckley of Lancaster. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 17 

Mr. Bingliam had retired from active practice a year or two 
before his decease, and had been in failing physical health for 
some months, but had been confined to the house only about six 
weeks. He retained his mental faculties and interest in his sur- 
roundings to the last, passing away quietly at 2:30 p. m. on 
Wednesday, September 12, 1900, the immediate cause of death 
being given by the physicians in attendance as mitral lesion of 
the heart. 

The funeral was held on Friday, 14th. The following account 
of the same is from the Littleton Repuhlic- Journal of Sep- 
tember 21 : 

"At noon of a cloudless day all that was mortal of Harry 
Bingham was interred in the Glenwood Cemetery. 

"The services, which were public, were held in the Grand 
Opera House, last Friday morning, and were conducted with 
simplicity, as befitted the closed career of a man who did all 
things with unostentatiousness. 

"The rector of All Souls' Church officiated, using the impres- 
sive and beautiful Episcopal service. 

"Music was furnished by a quartette composed of Mrs. E. K. 
Parker, Mrs. Harry D. Green, Moses Harriman and Charles F. 
Bingham, who rendered with feeling expression, "Through the 
Valley of the Shadow" and "Nearer, My God, to Thee." Mrs. 
Charles F, Bingham, organist of the Congregationalist Church, 
acted as accompanist. 

* ' The left center of the Opera House was occupied by the rela- 
tives and friends of the deceased, and the right center was re- 
served for the members of the bar and the business men of Lit- 
tleton. 

"Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Messrs. 
"Wells and Bingham, B. H. Corning having charge of the cortege 
and position of carriages in the line of the procession. George 
H. Tilton attended to the seating of the large audience, having 
as assistants Harry D. Green, Henry 0. Hatch, Harry Baldwin, 
Fred Aldrich, Walter Heald and Harold Ward. 

"The body reposed in a black broadcloth casket, in the rear of 
the same being placed a full length picture of Judge Bingham, 
draped with crepe and broad white satin ribbon. 



18 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

"At the conclusion of the services, for fully three-quarters of 
an hour, a line of people, business men, fellow lawyers, young 
law students and gray-haired contemporaries, passed in front of 
the casket for a last look at the features, which, though wasted 
by the ravages of disease, were natural and bore the look of 
rugged dignity so characteristic of the dead while in the walks 
of life. 

"Following these last tributes of respect the cortege formed 
at the head of the street and wound its way to the cemetery, 
carriage after carriage joining the line, until the procession 
stretched the entire length of Main Street, the longest cortege 
ever known to take its way to Glenwood. 

"Amid reverent silence the dead was lowered to his last rest- 
ing place, the final committal service being read by the Rev. J. B. 
Goodrich. 

"The honorary pallbearers were life-long friends of Judge 
Bingham, comprising the Hon. Chester B. Jordan and the Hon. 
Irving W. Drew of Lancaster, the Hon. Alvin Burleigh of Ply- 
mouth, Edward Woods of Bath and Judge Edgar Aldrich, 
Henry L. Tilton, Benjamin "W. Kilburn, and the Hon. James 
W. Remiek of Littleton. The active bearers comprised the mem- 
bers of the law firm of which Judge Bingham was senior partner, 
the Hon. A. S. Batchellor, the Hon. William H. Mitchell, and 
the Hon. John M. Mitchell of Concord, Dexter D. Dow of Woods- 
ville and the four nephews of the deceased — Capt. Harry Bing- 
ham of Washington, Harry Bingham Ballou of Boston, George 
H. Bingham of Manchester and Andrew Bingham of Littleton. 

"Among promient men in attendance were Ex-Senator Henry 
W. Blair of Manchester, Frank D. Currier of Canaan, Senator 
Jonathan Ross of St. Johnsbury, William P. Buckley and George 
M. Stevens of Lancaster, John C. Linehan, Burns P. Hodgman 
and George M. Fletcher of Concord, Thomas P. Cheney of Ash- 
land, Robert N. Chamberlin of Berlin, Stephen S. Jewett of 
Laconia, and Samuel B. Page of Woodsville." 



By the provisions of his will, of which John M. Mitchell was 
designated as executor, Mr. Bingham left one thousand dollars 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 19 

to the Littleton public library, and two hundred to the town of 
Littleton, the income of which to be used for the care of his lot 
in the cemetery. One thousand dollars was also set apart to 
defray the expense of the publication of his literary works, the 
same to be published under the supervision of Edgar Aldrich, 
Albert S. BatcheDor and John M. Mitchell. 

To John M. Mitchell, Albert S. Batchellor and William H. 
Mitchell he gave, respectively, the gold-headed canes presented 
him by his Democratic associates in the legislatures of 1863 1871 
and 1891. 

All the rest of his estate except his library was given to his 
relatives, and his library to his law partners. 



Upon a handsome bronze tablet, on the right wall of the vesti- 
bule of the new public library in Littleton, appears the following 
inscription : 

IN MEMORY OF 

HARRY BINGHAM 

LAVrZER, STATESMAN, 

BENEFACTOR OF THIS LIBRARY. 

BORN CONCORD, VERMONT, 

March 30, 1821. 

DIED, LITTLETON, NEW HAMPSHIRE, 

September 12, 1900. 



PRESS TRIBUTES. 



From the Manchester "Union," September 13, 1900. 

The long and honorable career of Harry Bingham, which 
came to a close at his home in Littleton yesterday, affords a 
striking illustration of the great truth that no man need sacrifice 
his opinions or do injustice to his convictions in order to attain 
success. Men believed in him because he was sincere. When 
he gave an opinion, it was an honest opinion, whether relating 
to law, to politics, to business, or to any other of the complex 
questions pertaining to human conditions. It was well known 
that he had great influence with juries in the counties where 
most of his legal battles were fought; and this influence was 
due, not only to his masterful presentation, plain, forceful logic 
and cogent reasoning, but to a well-grounded conviction that 
when he took a case, he himself believed thoroughly in the 
justice of the cause. It is related of Thomas Jefferson that a 
venerable man, upon being asked if Jefferson was a good lawyer, 
replied that he did not know, because he was always on the right 
side of the case. There was no question that Harry Bingham 
was a good lawyer, but through all the years of his long and 
successful practice there was a very general feeling among the 
people of Grafton and Coos counties that he was always on the 
right side of the case. 

It is futile to speculate on what might have been had Harry 
Bingham sacrificed his political convictions to considerations of 
expediency. Had he cast his fortunes with the majority party, 
there can be no doubt that his ability would have won for him 
substantial recognition; but no mere consideration of personal 
advantage could have the slightest weight with such a man. He 
stood true to his convictions, whatever might befall; others 
received the honors which might have been his ; and yet it may 
be seriously questioned whether any man who has apparently 



22 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

been more successful in politics in New Hampshire during the 
past forty years has exercised an influence so far reaching and 
so beneficial to the state as did he. Throughout all the long 
period of service in the Legislature his keen perception of the 
fundamental principles of things, his ready apprehension of 
what was fit and what unfit, combined with his steadfastness to 
conviction, enabled him to exercise a marked influence upon leg- 
islation. As a member of the judiciary committee he checked 
many an iU-advised or pernicious measure, spared the courts 
much labor, and protected the people from a vast body of ex- 
pensive and foolish legislation. His impress upon the character 
of legislation in New Hampshire will be felt long after many a 
man who received far greater recognition by the state has been 
forgotten. In his work in the Legislature he rendered the people 
of his state great and lasting service. 

In politics, as in every walk of life, Harry Bingham was 
uncompromising, fearless and straightforward. Expediency was 
with him never permitted to clash with conviction. He did not 
know how to vacillate and he would not sacrifice principle for 
securing advantage. 

Prom the Concord "People and Patriot," September 13, 1900. 

The death of Harry Bingham is as the falling of a great oak 
in the forest. Though full of years and past the age of activity, 
his strong, rugged character stood out in example to all his fel- 
lows, and all are bowed in sorrow at his death. There is always 
inspiration for those who bear the burdens of the day in such 
a personality as his, and as he lies in death there is an uplifting 
lesson in a study of his career. The name of Harry Bingham 
has ever been a synonym for honor, for honesty, for the strictest 
integrity. He was one of those grand old men of whom there 
have been far too few in these later days ; men who hated sham 
and hypocrisy in every form ; men whom no influence could turn 
from the straight and narrow path of duty as it appeared to 
them ; men who threw a mighty force of intellect and conscience 
into their battles for the people's causes. 

As a lawyer Harry Bingham stood for more than a generation 
at the head of the bar of the state. He was a master of legal 



PRESS TRIBUTES. 23 

principles, and the force and clearness that he employed in their 
expression made him an authority among the barristers of the 
state. In politics the same intellectual qualities that won him 
his success in the law made him a leader of his party. It is not 
too much to say that had the Democracy been in the ascendent 
in New Hampshire, he would have been among the foremost in 
the councils of the nation. 

From the Concord "Monitor," September 13, 1900. 

There is honest grief for Harry Bingham. His was a life of 
such lofty devotion to principle, such high achievement in his 
profession, such inspiration to all who live for duty, that of him 
it may now be said, in the sense of genuine loss which all will 
feel, as was said by Froude of Carlyle — ' ' A man is dead ! " A 
great man indeed has fallen; great not so much in the mere 
enumeration of his titles, as in the inherent strength of intel- 
lect and spirit and purpose which differentiates mankind and 
sets them into classes. Harry Bingham was a class by himself. 
He came down from the days of giants, and can well be numbered 
among them, for in all the characteristics of titanic brain and 
herculean purpose he enforced recognition as one of the great 
of his generation ; and it was his proud satisfaction to have lived 
long enough to witness the general acceptance of this estimate 
of his services and worth. He lived a rugged, simple life. His 
tenets were few and he never deserted them. Many a momen- 
tary pang he found, no doubt, in the doing of his duty, but he 
never swerved. He kept the faith, he fought the good fight, 
with Luther exclaiming, * * Here I stand. So help me God, I can 
do nothing else ! ' ' 

From the Portsmouth "Times," September 14, 1900. 

The death of Hon. Harry Bingham of Littleton removes one 
who for more than thirty years was recognized as the ablest 
member of the New Hampshire bar, and the strongest leader of 
the Democratic party in the state. In knowledge and under- 
standing of the law, in cogency of reasoning and power of state- 
ment, Mr. Bingham had few equals and no superiors at the bar 
anywhere in the country; while his heroic devotion to Democ- 
racy and its cause, in the face of continued defeat and discour- 
agement won for him the respect even of his political enemies. 



BAR EULOGIES. 



At the September adjourned term of the Supreme Court, held 
at Woodsville, December 11, 1900, the Hon. Robert M. Wallace 
presiding, a committee of the bar reported the following memo- 
rial, which was read: 

The members of the bar of Grafton County, deeply afflicted by 
the loss of their associate, the venerable Harry Bingham, would 
express their appreciation of him by asking the court to place 
upon its records the following brief memorial: 

By the death of Harry Bingham, the state of New Hampshire 
has lost a good citizen, a learned and conscientious lawyer, and 
an honest man. 

He was sturdy and resolute in his opinions, which he formed 
by careful and patient study and reflection, and which, while 
seriously examining and weighing all arguments against them, 
he was always ready to defend. 

He was animated by a spirit of the loftiest patriotism, and 
he never consented to or supported a policy which his judgment 
did not hold to be for the public welfare. 

Being endowed by nature with superb mental and physical 
powers and unquestioned genius for the law, by conscientious 
effort and study and unwavering fidelity to the courts and his 
clients, he early achieved, and for more than half a century main- 
tained, an exalted rank in his profession. 

His kindly nature and generous spirit endeared him to his 
professional brethren, and his recognized lofty principles of 
action and uniform uprightness ensured for him public confi- 
dence and trust. 

Honored is the state which numbers among its citizens such 
men! 

"While recognizing his profound legal learning, we are not 
unmindful of his broad statesmanship and his attainments in 



26 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

literature, history, and philosophy, in all of which lines, during 
his long life, he was a diligent and thorough student and became 
a master. 

The fine traits of his nature were manifested by the calmness 
with which he bore a long and hopeless illness, during which he 
examined with judicial fairness his long life, and was able to 
feel that he had run a good course and could meet the inevitable 
earthly end with "an unfaltering trust": 

"Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

Edgar Aldrich, 
John M. Mitchell, 
Irving W. Drew, 
Committee of the Bar. 

Following the reading of this memorial members of the bar 
addressed the court as follows: 

HON. EDGAR ALDRICH OF LITTLETON. 

May it please your Honor: 

The dark shadow of death is again thrown across our circle 
and we are called to mourn the loss of a member of our bar 
who has been a notable figure at this forum for considerably 
more than fifty years. 

When one, who has for so many years exercised his great 
powers with immeasurable influence in a state, is removed by 
death, the announcement of the fact to the court in which his 
labor has been performed, introduces an important proceeding, 
and one which involves a loss not only to the court and the bar, 
but a loss common to all the people of the state. But here, in 
this court, where Mr. Bingham has labored so long, the loss can 
perhaps be best appreciated, for the court and the bar know how 
great, how devoted, how thorough, how continuous, and how 
persistent his labors have been. 

At the outset let me say, when we come to pay tribute of 
respect to the memory of the venerable Harry Bingham, we come 
not to pay tribute to the memory of an ordinary man. With 



BAR EULOGIES. 27 

him the gifts of nature were great, and to the abundant gifts 
of nature was added a long life devoted to unremitting and 
methodic industry. The foundation and the superstructure 
complete present a stupendous monument of strength and 
beauty. There were some sharp angles and some unhewn edges, 
but these defects were technical and altogether lost in the 
breadth and towering proportions — in the greatness, the grand- 
eur, the beauty, of the wonderful whole. 

Those who knew Judge Bingham as a lawyer only, knew but 
one feature of his many and diversified attainments. He was 
more than a great lawyer; he was a ripe scholar, a philosopher, 
a historian, a profound statesman, and a jurist. He was nowhere 
wordy and superficial, but ever thorough and always on bed- 
rock. 

He was a persistent reader. He did not read rapidly, but 
thoroughly, and with an understanding that surpassed even the 
understanding of the man who wrote the book. It was part of 
his reading process to pause to consider the reasons stated by 
the author, and to call up from the wonderful resources of a 
richly-stored mind all of value that he had ever read or seen or 
heard on the subject. The essence of everything he ever read 
or heard or saw he retained. This power to comprehensively 
and understandingly retain local and historical data, and all the 
shadows, and things of substance, from early youth to ripe old 
age, to my mind, was his most remarkable characteristic. It 
was not the data alone in the abstract, but what went with it, 
and this illustrates what I mean in saying that he read and 
retained understandingly. In his mind he arranged historic 
matter, and grouped events in their proper periods. If it were 
a ruler of the Jews or a Roman Emperor, the causes and events 
in the circle of the reign ; or if a Shah of Persia, it was the same. 
So it would be if a ruler in Israel, or in ancient or modem 
China, in ancient or modern Mexico, or in Peru, or Iceland, and 
the mental transition from Rome and Israel to any suggested 
place on the face of the earth, while moderate, would be natural, 
graceful and easy. 

It was my fortune, in the few remaining years after his retire- 
ment from active work in the profession, to see much of him. To 



28 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

him all subjects and all things were apropos. I do not remem- 
ber ever introducing a topic of conversation that he did not at 
once take up familiarly the subject to which it related and add 
lustre to what had been written or said by others. Perhaps it 
was my aim to draw him out. To get the richness of his learn- 
ing and the fullness of his reminiscent power, it was necessary 
after introducing a subject, to listen well, and let him pull on 
in his own way, and as he recalled one event, that would suggest 
another, and before leaving the subject the ground would be 
thoroughly and intelligently covered. 

I remember one evening he asked me what I had been reading. 
I told him I had just finished the life of Thaddeus Stevens. 
"Well," said he, ''Thaddeus Stevens was a remarkable man." 
Continuing, he said: ''I remember the first time I ever heard 
of him. It was in 1830 or '31, at the time the anti-Masonic 
crusade was on. My father was a Mason, and my Grandfather 
Wheeler was an anti-Mason. One morning father and I were 
weeding in the garden and talking, and I heard some one say, 
'Good morning, Mr. Bingham.' I looked up, and there stood 
Grandfather Wheeler, with his arms folded, leaning against the 
garden wall. After passing the compliments of the day. Grand- 
father Wheeler said, 'I heard a great speech yesterday over at 
Peacham. It was the greatest speech I ever heard in my life, 
and it was against the Masons.' 'Was it?' said father. 'Who 
made it?' 'Young Thad. Stevens,' grandfather replied. I re- 
member he said ' Young Thad. Stevens, ' and I recall that I won- 
dered at the time how young a man could be and make as great 
a speech as grandfather said that was. ' ' From this Judge Bing- 
ham took up the subject, and ran the whole gamut of the rise 
and fall of the anti-Masonic party in Vermont and the nation. 
He told who the candidates were, and the vote cast for the 
various candidates in the state and country. From this he fol- 
lowed the career of Thaddeus Stevens through the ante-bellum 
days, and through his great and signal service in Congress, cov- 
ered by the Civil War and the reconstruction period. At this 
point, in a spirit of playfulness, and to test his memory and his 
sublime and childlike simplicity and sincerity, I said, "Judge 
Bingham, I believe you said at the outset that you and your 
father were weeding in the garden in 1830 or '31 when your 



BAR EULOGIES. 29 

grandfather came along. What were you weeding?" Appar- 
ently unmindful of my playfulness, after a moment's reflection 
he replied, "We were weeding out the onion bed," and then, 
without being further diverted, continued on his course in the 
delineation of the character, strength, and politics of Thaddeus 
Stevens. 

After seeing Paris, Rufus Choate wrote, with a feeling appar- 
ently akin to sadness: "I have lost the Tuileries, and Boule- 
vards, and Champs-Elysees, and Seine, and Versailles, and St. 
Cloud, of many years of reading and reverie — a picture incom- 
plete in details, inaccurate in all things, yet splendid and ade- 
quate in the eye of imagination — and have gained a reality of 
ground and architecture, accurate, detailed, splendid, impres- 
sive — and I sigh ! ' ' Such is the revelation which usually comes 
to man upon seeing with the eye that of which he has read ; but 
not so with Mr. Bingham. His reading and reflection had been 
so thorough and analytical that the world and its great centers 
seemed to have no surprises for him. He knew the world's his- 
tory, and in his mind's eye, though not actually, had seen all its 
structures. He seemed to have trod the streets of Rome, and 
walked beneath her imposing domes, within her galleries, her 
monasteries, and her churches, and to have wandered through 
the ruins of her ancient gardens and the dark passageways of 
her catacombs, and to have stood upon the Seven Hills and 
viewed all the wonders and the glories of the Eternal city. He 
seemed to have visited the castles of the Rhine, and to have 
walked the corridors of the libraries of ancient Alexandria. He 
was familiar alike with the architecture of ancient Jerusalem, 
and of modern Paris, and of the mountains of Italy and of 
Alaska. The source, the navigability, the color and the shade of 
the waters of the rivers of the world, were in his mind and 
eye. The softness of the Italian sky, and the wonderful sunsets 
resplendently reflected by the ice-covered mountains of Switzer- 
land, seemed a reality to him. The scenes enacted upon the great 
battlefields of the world were familiar to him, whether upon the 
ancient fields of Cannae, or of Thermopylae, or upon the 
fields of Borodino or of Waterloo, or of Saratoga or Gettysburg; 
or whether the savage battle grounds of the Indian were those 
of the ancient far East, or those of our own country in Rhode 



30 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Island and Massachusetts, on the plains, or on the confines of our 
East, our South, or our West. 

Mr. Bingham was a jurist by nature, and would have adorned 
the highest judicial seat in our land. But although judicial 
position was several times within his reach, he declined it. He 
made no secret of saying that the reason for turning proffered 
judicial position aside lay in his ambition for labor in the Sen- 
ate of the United States. AU agree that he was admirably 
equipped for usefulness in the deliberations of that great body, 
but his destiny in that respect was involved in the non-success 
of the Democratic party with which he early cast his lot, for the 
people of New Hampshire ordained that no one who was a Dem- 
ocrat, during the period covered by his life of activity, however 
eminent, however well equipped, should represent them in that 
body. All, however, agree that had his destiny happened to be 
cast with that of the dominant party, whichever that should be, 
the people of New Hampshire would have early and quickly or- 
dained that the place belonged to him during his natural life. 
Once there, all believe that his work would have reflected credit 
and honor upon the state and nation ; that his courage, his indus- 
try, his persistence, his stately and dignified bearing, his well- 
stored brain, his rare philosophical and literary attainments, his 
deliberative mind, his gravity and power of speech — in a word, 
his statesmanlike qualities — would have made him prominent 
among the most prominent senators of his day, and that he would 
have achieved a name as national as that of Sherman or Hoar, 
of Edmunds or Thurman. 

Though a bachelor, he respected woman, and believed that the 
function woman exercises — her influence and her power in the 
home — is as important and useful as the function of man in 
the broad and open field of life, for the reason, as he believed, 
that great and powerful nations are impossible without great 
men, and that great men are possible only where great and good 
mothers preside over the childhood and the home. 

His philosophy was such that to him the rose and the rock, 
the trickling brook and the broad ocean, the sunshine and the 
ominous darkness that precedes the storm and the lightning, the 
tiny blade of grass and the giant oak, the grain of sand and the 
towering mountain, the fitful flight of the humming bird and 



BAR EULOGIES. 31 

the unaltered and unalterable revolutions of the planetary sys- 
tem, were alike a joy and things of beauty, because they are a 
part of nature and a part of the eternal plan of the Almighty. 
And his philosophy was such, that to him, purpose, industry and 
principle in man were qualities which most surely lead men to 
honorable success ; and because wise and successful men raise the 
standard of civilization and of nations, and thereby advance the 
design of the Creator. 

He believed profoundly in the genius of our institutions, and 
thought the men who assembled to lay the foundations of our 
government were as great as any set of men who ever assembled 
for such a purpose since the world began. 

Among all the men who ever lived, Washington was his ideal. 
He thought — all things considered — what he accomplished 
against the difficulties under which he labored, his inherent civic 
and military strength, the way in which he wielded power, and 
the way in which he surrendered it, the ruggedness and sim- 
plicity of his character, the peacefulness and serenity of his 
mind and of his private life, constituted him the greatest and 
most worthy type of manhood of ancient or modern times. 

Of men of letters and dazzling genius, Shakespeare stood first, 
and was his greatest delight; yet he held in adoration Gray's 
Elegy and Milton's Paradise Lost as masterpieces of stately and 
inspiring verse, and was charmed by the sweet songs of Longfel- 
low and Whittier., 

With him the Bible, with which he was familiar, was the great- 
est of all books; and many of us recall the impressive manner 
in which he recited the Twenty-Third Psalm as his peroration 
in the Whitman will case. 

While he did not agree, at the time, to all that was written 
and said in the period preceding the Civil War against the in- 
stitution of human slavery as established in our government, he 
believed that Harriet Beecher Stowe, through her "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," did more to prepare public sentiment for its final over- 
throw than any other one person. 

He believed that the time has come when our nation should 
take its stand among the great nations of the world and become 
a leader upon the great international questions necessarily pre- 
sented by new and changed conditions. He believed that ex- 



32 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

pansion in all life, and under all conditions, is a logical and 
necessary incident of growth and power. In this line I remember 
hearing him say, in connection with Washington's non-inter- 
vention policy: "Washington was a great man; he was great 
enough to comprehend the situation which confronted him in 
his day, and the whole of it. He could not have foreseen the 
conditions that confront us in our day. Steam and electricity 
have made countries which were remote from each other in his 
day, near neighbors in our day, but he was so great that if here, 
I have no doubt whatever, he would comprehend the condition 
that confronts us and the whole of it, and, comprehending, that 
he would do his duty. ' ' 

In religion Judge Bingham was not a bigot. He was tolerant 
of the religion of Confucius, the ancient Chinese law-giver, who 
taught that one should not do unto others what he would not 
have others do unto him; and he accepted the teachings of our 
Saviour, that one should do unto others as he would have others 
do unto him. 

This is not the time for an extended sketch of the life of Judge 
Bingham as a lawyer. Upon a proper occasion some suitable 
person wiU delineate his great qualities as a lawyer and his prom- 
inent career at the bar. I will only say that his name and his 
briefs appearing in the New Hampshire reports since Ranlett v. 
Moore, decided in 1850, reported in Vol. 21, down through and 
including Vol. 69, constitute a permanent monument to his mem- 
ory as a lawyer. 

Though gone from earth and having entered 

"The undiscovered country from whose bourne 
No traveler returns," 

in memory we see him still, with the well rounded and command- 
ing head, poised upon broad, square-set shoulders; the sturdy 
oak-like pose, as if the feet were deeply and firmly rooted in 
mother earth ; the erect figure, firm and steadfast, as if mysteri- 
ously bolted to New Hampshire granite and buttressed by her 
everlasting hills; the dignified and stately carriage; the large, 
brown, wide-open, ox-like, honest, glistening eyes, a prominent 
feature of that grave and impressive face. And to complete the 
picture which hangs in our memory, we may well borrow a de- 



BAR EULOGIES. 33 

scription of Donatello's famous statute of St. George, and say: 
' ' He stands there sturdily, with his legs somewhat striding apart, 
resting on both with equal weight, as if he meant to stand so that 
no power should move him from his post. ' ' 

The last time I saw Mr. Bingham to have conversation with 
him, which was only a few days before his death, his superb 
figure was sorely diseased and shattered, but his wonderful mind 
shone with unclouded and undiminished beauty and strength. 
In closing, let me reproduce, in its substantial features, what he 
said on this occasion, for it illustrates several characteristics to 
which I have referred. It illustrates the teachings of his phil- 
osophy of living and dying. It illustrates the accuracy of his 
memory. It illustrates his quaint humor, and it illustrates his 
patience and his thoughtfulness. He spoke of his age, and said 
that he had outlived by many years the period of threescore years 
and ten allotted to man, that seventy-seven of these years had 
been comfortable and convenient, and that while the last two 
had been uncomfortable and painful, he ought not to complain. 

"And," said he, "while I am helpless, and while I am a bur- 
den to myself and to others, and while it is best that I should go, 
I shaU remain on earth all the days allotted to me, and if you 
ever hear that I have done anything to shorten my days, you may 
know it was because I was not myself. It is just as important," 
said he, ' ' that one should die respectably as it is that one should 
live respectably," thus exhibiting more than the Roman spirit 
of another who, when informed that he must die, replied, "I 
like it well, I shall die before my heart is soft, and before I 
have said anything unworthy of myself." At this time I had 
just returned from my camp at the lakes, and to divert his mind 
I referred to my good luck with the rod. He asked me whether 
I fished on the lakes or on the brooks or rivers. I told him that 
I had my best luck on a little pond called Jaquith's pond; and, 
thinking that I might interest him by telling him something that 
he did not know, related that, according to tradition, years ago, a 
strange old man by the name of Jaquith went a mile or more into 
the unbroken wilderness and cleared up a few acres of land near 
this pond, where alone he spent a considerable portion of his 
time for many years, frequently journeying through the north 
country driving a steer and a heifer, "Oh," said he, taking up 

3 



34 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the story, "I remember old Jaquith very well. The first time I 
ever saw him was in the winter of the year that I was eight years 
old. Our home was in Concord, Vt. I was reading a book in 
the kitchen, and mother was at work. Old Jaquith drove into 
the yard with a heifer and a steer harnessed to a sled. There 
were boards around the platform of the sled, a little straw, a few 
sheep, and two or three pigs upon a platform. He came to the 
door and entered without rapping, and as I remember him he 
was rather a marked-looking man, somewhat advanced in years, 
and without further introduction, he said, 'I am a preacher; I 
preach for a living. I preach the Gospel of St. Paul, and I 
preach after the manner of St. Paul. I preach an hour for a 
quarter of a dollar, a half hour for fifteen cents, and a quarter 
of an hour for ten cents ; ' and mother, who was busy, evidently 
did not catch what he first said, and inquired, 'What is it you 
do for that ? ' And he repeated, ' I am a preacher ; I preach for 
a living. I preach the Gospel of St. Paul, and I preach after the 
manner of St. Paul. I preach an hour for a quarter of a dol- 
lar, a half hour for fifteen cents, and a quarter of an hour for 
ten cents. And, I forgot to say, that I take my pay in hay for 
my cattle and sheep, or in potatoes for my pigs.' Mother hesi- 
tated, and I never quite made up my mind whether it was because 
she was short of hay and potatoes, or whether she felt it would 
be trifling with a sacred subject. But, boy-fashion, I rather 
encouraged the preaching, and mother said, 'Well, you may 
preach for us for a while, and we will pay you in potatoes. ' He 
went out to the sled and brought in a large iron kettle and set it 
down on the kitchen floor, raised his hand and head reverently, 
and was about to begin, when his hand fell, and he said, *I for- 
got to inquire whether I am to preach for a kettleful of potatoes, 
or half a kettleful.' And mother said, 'Well, while you are 
about it, you may as well preach for a kettleful.' Mr. Jaquith 
then began, taking for his text that passage of the sacred Scrip- 
tures which compares the gospel to the waters of the running 
river, and he pointed out that both were inexhaustible and ever- 
lasting, and illustrated by saying that one might dip a pailful 
of water from the river to slake the thirst of his animals, 'but 
the river would run on undiminished, and so it is with the gos- 
pel. There is enough gospel to save the souls of all the living 



BAR EULOGIES. 35 

in the world, and then there would be just as much left.' " 
Thus as he was nearing the end of his life's journey, he gave 
the dialogue and vividly recalled what I have related, and much 
more of the details of this scene of his childhood days, which 
quite likely had not been in his mind for more than seventy years. 
Fearing that I might tax his strength too much, I rose and said, 
*'I must go." "What?" he said, "You are not going now, are 
you?" I replied, "Yes, I must hold court tomorrow, and I 
think I had better go." "Well," said he, "go out and hold 
your court, and deal justly by all men ; and, if on the morrow I 
find myself healed, and restored to youth and strength, I shall 
attend your court." Thus near the end, and as he stood upon 
the verge of the valley, he employed a happy, optimistic, and 
poetic figure of speech, to convey the idea in his mind, that with 
him dissolution and transition were at hand. 

HON. JOHN M. MITCHELL OF CONCORD. 

May it please the Court: 

It having been my rare privilege, great pleasure, and incal- 
culable advantage to enjoy the familiar acquaintance, solid in- 
struction, and true friendship of this great man, for a period of 
thirty years, I feel at this time incapable, even with the wealth 
of material at hand, to do more than, in a very general way, 
speak of the character, achievements, worth, honor, and ability 
of Judge Bingham. 

That he was endowed by nature with an intellect of great ca- 
pacity and superb qualities, which were splendidly developed by 
the most extensive and expansive learning, as well as the most 
rigid discipline, could be readily observed by anyone who en- 
joyed his society, whether he indulged in a discussion of the sub- 
ject of literature, law, politics, statesmanship, religion, history, 
or any of the varied phases of our complex life and civilization. 

His active professional life covered a period of over half a 
century, embracing large experience, characterized by honorable 
and successful results in all the varied phases and features of 
the general practice of a New Hampshire lawyer. He was, in 
each relation, a recognized and distinguished master. There was 
no labor which came within the employment of a lawyer, whether 



36 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

investigating a question of law, or developing a question of fact, 
or preparing a case for trial, examining or cross-examining a wit- 
ness, opening a case to the jury or making a final argument, or 
arguing a case before a single judge, or the full court, which 
was ever regarded by him as unworthy of his attention and his 
best effort. 

Any man for whom, or any cause in which, he engaged, re- 
ceived his undivided attention and the benefit of his great ex- 
perience and learning. 

The members of the bar who must record, for the benefit of 
posterity, their esteem of Judge Bingham, are those of us who 
first met him in the prime of life and accompanied him down 
its western declivity. We are not able, except by conjecture, 
to think of him, much less speak of him, during that period of 
development, when he was forming and giving evidence of the 
splendid and superb career which lay before him. The men who 
were his associates during that period, have, like himself, gone 
to their final reward. And those men, as we recall them, from 
our personal acquaintance, or through history or tradition, we 
recognize as the fit and accomplished associates of a man of 
Judge Bingham's character. Conspicuous among them, we 
readily and instinctively call up the late Chief Justice Bellows, 
the Rands, Harry Hibbard, Judge Carpenter, Duncan, Judge 
Ladd, Eay, Burns, Wells, Quiney, Burrows and George A. Bing- 
ham, among those in the northern part of the state, with Pierce, 
Atherton, Morrison, Minot, George, Pike, Marshall, Whipple, 
Wheeler, Faulkner, Gushing, Burke, Hatch, Christie, Marston, 
and many others, in other parts of the state, who are held in 
high esteem, on account of the manner in which they adorned 
their chosen profession. Among the living who could be re- 
garded as contemporaries in his early manhood are none whom 
I recall, except Brothers Fling, ex-Senator Blair, and ex-Judge 
Hibbard. 

This evidences the remarkable changes occurring in the per- 
sonnel of the bar, even during a period of thirty years. 

Judge Bingham had a clear and unclouded conception of a 
legal proposition, which he developed and elucidated with a 
strength, clearness, and force that eliminated all extraneous mat- 
ters, and brought home, to the minds of his hearers, plainly and 



BAR EULOGIES. 37 

elearly-cut, the question propounded, with all the unanswerable 
reasoning which could be mustered in its support. 

His power was equally cogent, felicitous, and peculiar to him- 
self, in the demonstration of a question of fact. He had few 
equals and no superior in the presentation of a question of fact 
to the ordinary mind. His language was simple, direct, un- 
adorned, yet pointed, convincing and conclusive. His illustra- 
tions, though plain, were strikingly argumentative, and they en- 
forced with telling effect the point he was making. 

His admiration for the law, and the legal profession, was ex- 
alted; and he found this field, among all that he cultivated, 
the most congenial for a life-work, and the best adapted for the 
development of the best qualities of man. 

He believed in "a few wise laws wisely administered," rather 
than many laws, a part disregarded entirely and others indif- 
ferently enforced. 

He abhorred wrong, injustice, dishonor, duplicity, and oppres- 
sion, and he had a remarkably keen instinct and capacity to de- 
tect and expose them. He believed the law to be the safeguard 
of liberty, as the custodian of all private interest, and as the 
palladium of public justice. 

He believed in restraining the government within the limits 
fixed by the Constitution, — those limits to be ascertained by a 
careful and diligent study of the works and lives of the sagacious 
framers of the government. 

In the practice of his profession he was a model, honest, up- 
right, conscientious and industrious. 

It may well be said of him, — 

"Whose armor is his honest thought, 
And simple truth his utmost skill." 

With associates he was considerate, indulgent, and tolerant, so 
long as he believed their mistakes resulted from youth, inex- 
perience, or lack of capacity. No associate was ever consciously 
deprived of his fair share of honor in the successful conduct of 
a trial or management of a cause ; and in defeat he was ever ready 
to take his full share of the burden incident to such a result. 

We might well say of him, as Emerson said of another great 
American, — "He was thoroughly American, had never crossed 



38 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the sea, had never been spoiled by English insularity or French 
dissipation ; a quiet, native, aboriginal man, as an acorn from the 
oak; no aping foreigners, or frivolous accomplishments." 

It may be said of him, without exaggeration, that he was a 
great man, a good man, "an honest man, the noblest work of 
God." 

He was the kind of a man whom Emerson had in mind when 
he said: "The world is upheld by the veracity of good men; 
they make the earth wholesome. They who live with them find 
life glad and nutritious." 

Judge Bingham ' ' carved his own statue, he built his own mon- 
ument;" and to us, his associates, and to posterity, he has left 
the splendid achievements of a great, good, and well-spent pro- 
fessional, public and private life. 

He has left us, and his associates, a heritage, consisting of a 
splendid and exalted example, a wholesome and unadorned pre- 
cept. And he left works that will long survive him. As was 
said of another we may say of him: "The best monument to a 
great and good man are the works with which his hand and head 
have enriched the world." 

"We can say of him, with truth, as he did, with reference to 
the character of Harry Hibbard, on a like occasion, more than 
twenty-eight years ago : 

" As a public man he held responsible positions, and when their 
duties were discharged, became again a private citizen, with his 
honor unsullied, and his integrity unsuspected. As a legal 
practitioner he fulfilled the highest obligations of his profession 
with all fidelity to the court, as well as to his client. By his 
death, we have lost a man we could trust, and a leader we could 
safely follow. We can no longer have his direct aid and assist- 
ance, but his example still lives and will remain to inspire and 
guide us, and those who shall come after us." 

As a friend he was true, constant, and affectionate ; his nature 
being kind and considerate. 

So long as my memory performs its natural functions I can 
never forget his kind, pleasant, and indulgent relations with me, 
not only as a boy, when I first made his acquaintance, but, also, 
as a young man, and during the last years of his life. 

He was a man of genuine modesty ; never aggressive, or offen- 



BAR EULOGIES. 39 

sive in the display of his learning, or the exhibition of his 
great strength. It might be said of him, as it was of another 
great and learned lawyer : 

"Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much ; 
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." 

How aptly we may apply to him the saying of Boileau, who 
said that, ''the wisest man is generally he who thinks himself 
the least so." 

In no period of his long and useful life did he exhibit, in a 
higher degree, the nobility of his character and the grandeur of 
his soul, than during his long illness and last earthly days. Dur- 
ing that painful and trying time he displayed that calm repose, 
great patience and sublime trust which evidenced the conviction 
that he had faith in the Divine Revelation that, "Though man 
die, yet shall he live again," and that, ''This corruptible must 
put on incorruption ; and this mortal must put on immortality. ' ' 

HON, IRVING W, DREW OF LANCASTER. 

May it please the Court and Brethren of the Bar: 

I did not expect to say anything upon this occasion, because I 
understood Judge Aldrich and Brother Mitchell, from their more 
intimate relations with Judge Bingham, would make extended 
remarks, and I also understood there would be several here who 
had been connected with Judge Bingham as partners and stu- 
dents in his office, who would probably require all the time. 

But I will say that I fully approve of, and agree with, all that 
has been said. I think Judge Aldrich has treated the intellectual 
and social characteristics of our dear and honored friend in a 
very intimate and very interesting way. He has made us see Judge 
Bingham as everyone has seen him who was ever intimately asso- 
ciated with him in time of battle and in time of peace. I always 
felt when I was in the presence of Judge Bingham I was under 
the lee of a great mountain which would protect me against all 
assaults. He was emphatically a great man. I know it is nat- 
ural and easy to say, when an associate, a member of the bar, or 
any friend who has had any public standing, passes away, that 
he was a great man; but in this instance nothing else could be 



40 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

said and said truly. He had no unnecessary acquirements. He 
had no useless formalities, but he had method of thought and ex- 
pression which was original and full of strength. He always 
built his structures from the foundation rock. He never seemed 
to use material that another had quarried, nor to apply any 
method borrowed from another. He had the type of mind which 
naturally takes possession of aU thought and all methods and in 
the using stamps them with special originality and force. His 
manner of presenting his views was so original and unique that 
he always commanded willing attention. All his ideas were so 
expressed that the essential truth of them was the most important 
thing. As has been suggested, he was thorough in everything. 
It was impossible for him to do anything superficially. Every 
essential detail, so far as I had occasion to observe, commanded 
his attention and force of character just as fully and completely 
as any other part of his work. His intellectual appetite, di- 
gestion, and assimilation were of the best sort. He selected only 
the substantials and essentials, and these he thoroughly masti- 
cated and digested, and in the process of assimilation every nutri- 
ent quality was saved and appropriated, and all the waste and 
dross were thrown aside. His arrangement and classification of 
information was very remarkable. Everything, relating to any 
given subject, seemed to come forth from the storehouse of his 
memory, even after many years, in the actual order of its evo- 
lution. Whenever his attention was called to any subject which 
had at any time been regarded as of theoretical or practical util- 
ity he would discourse upon it with such fulness of information 
and familiarity as can only come from complete mastery of the 
subject. The structure and habit of his mind were such that his 
conclusions were the product of thorough investigation and care- 
ful and discriminating selection and weighing of relevant proofs. 

Tenacity of purpose is a necessary attribute of such a char- 
acter, but Judge Bingham's tenacity was allegiance to principle, 
not to form. He could not abandon the right as he saw it for any 
consideration. He marched sturdily forward in support and ad- 
vocacy of what he believed true and just, even at the sacrifice of 
the dearest associations of a lifetime. His mind was remarkable 
not for its velocity but for its momentum. 

I have said — we must all say — we have lost a great man ; great 



BAR EULOGIES. 41 

not only as compared with other great men with whom we have 
been associated, but, if we can compare great men so as to make 
any absohite weighing, we must admit to ourselves, and confess 
to each other, that, take him all in all,— intellectually, as a man 
of heart, of soul, and of good fellowship, a man who was in in- 
timate touch with humanity, who appreciated what was noble and 
scorned what was base,— we have never yet grasped the hand of 
one who stood higher than Judge Bingham. 

H. M. MORSE, ESQ., OF LITTLETON. 

It is neither proper nor possible for me to speak of Harry 
Bingham as a lawyer, for he long ago put out upon the high seas, 
while I have but gathered a few scattered pebbles upon the shore [ 
moreover, this duty is in the hands of those who from long asso- 
ciation are especially qualified to speak of him as a lawyer. But, 
great as is the compliment you pay to a man's intellect when you 
say he is a great lawyer, it falls far short of full justice when it 
is said of Harry Bingham, unless it be added that he was a many- 
sided man, and great from any view-point, and preeminently 
great as a whole. 

It occurs to me that here there are few faults and weaknesses 
concealed by the halo which always surrounds the memory of a 
great man lately gone from among us,— hence less danger of ful- 
some eulogy. Speaking generally we all remember a strong, 
dominant personality, whose influence was potent upon whom- 
soever and whatever it came in contact with. It is not, however, 
too much to say, I think, that we should search in vain for 
anything but good resulting from this influence. 

It has been my good fortune to know something of Harry 
Bingham as a man and a citizen in the community where he lived, 
and I have known the rare pleasure of his companionship at his 
own fireside. It was there, I think, and under such conditions, 
that the profundity and wide range of his attainments, outside 
his profession, were most fully and freely displayed. His hos- 
pitality was as charming as it was generous, because of the feast 
of intellectual tid-bits one was always sure of. He had dug deep 
into treasures of the literature of all times and climes, in science, 
philosophy, history, poetry and religion. 



42 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

I recall an evening spent with him some two years since, when 
he talked for an hour and a half of the life, times and mission of 
Buddha. I thought then, and I think now, that he knew more 
about Buddha, the purity and grandeur of his life and the subtle- 
ties of his religion, than nine tenths of the church-going people 
know of the more modern doctrines of Christianity. It was 
scarcely possible to mention a subject about which he did not 
know much more than you knew yourself, nor a country with 
whose history, traditions, government, and people he was not 
perfectly familiar. So remarkable was this, that he always gave 
me the impression of being a specialist in whatever matter he 
discussed. 

The world at large saw in Harry Bingham a man aggressive, — 
not always tolerant of opposition, sometimes impatient in man- 
ner and caustic in speech ; but the other side of the man, the side 
which quickened in the genial warmth of social intercourse, was 
kindly, genial, helpful, and with an unwasting fulness of char- 
ity for the many who stray from the narrow grass-grown path 
of righteous living, wherein walk the few who never stumble. 
For that class who rely for proof of righteousness upon profes- 
sion rather than performance, I never detected any marked ten- 
derness. 

There was in Judge Bingham a vein of quiet humor which 
played over his lighter discourse like sunlight upon an autumn 
forest. He spoke not infrequently upon subjects akin to the- 
ology. He always impressed me as having a strong, well-settled 
belief in a Great Intelligence, without attempting to limit its at- 
tributes. I always thought he believed in immortality as a fact 
in nature. His discourse upon these and kindred topics was 
characterized by calm reasoning and simple reverence, rather 
than mushy sentiment. He did not, by sheer physical effort, 
try to believe things that his intellect told him were flatly incred- 
ible. 

His manner of speech in private conversation was marked by 
the same virility, directness and simplicity notable in his public 
utterances. It sometimes rose to a plane of rugged grandeur, but 
never degenerated into "rag-tag metaphor," nor became lurid 
with splashes of ornate, pointless generalities. 

It seems to me that the two traits, closely kindred, which stand 



BAR EULOGIES. 43 

out, both in his public and private career, like Washington and 
Lafayette in our own northern landscape, were his dauntless 
courage and absolute devotion to his principles. I do not mean 
the courage which walks carelessly to the cannon's mouth, but the 
calmer, less dramatic courage which shrinks at no sacrifice, but 
clings to a perishing cause, and "looks out for no plank upon 
which to float away from the wreck. ' ' 

No man ever saw him walk falteringly when he followed the 
twin lights of duty and conviction, whether his steps took him 
among "troops of friends," or into that exalted isolation, too 
often the lot and station of high integrity. He was, however, 
never a "poseur"; he never "made proclamation from the house- 
tops, ' ' and never, if I may borrow a flippant but pregnant phrase, 
"played to the gallery," He was genuine, sincere and honest, 
and walked always in the white light of truth. Hence it followed 
that he was an intense hater of shams, a despiser of humbugs, 
though he lived in times when these things seemed to wax and 
grow strong. 

His twilight of life was long and his physical powers knew the 
blight of disease ; but through it all, his splendid mentality lost 
none of its noontide luster. During all the time that he stood 
upon the very "margin of the great change" there was no word 
spoken which we could wish unsaid, and no act done which we 
could wish undone. He stood, as it were, in the visible presence 
of death, and his dignity and courage were not shaken. He died 
as he had lived, proudly self-reliant. Let us believe that "in 
that still country on the other side," the wealth of this life may 
be counted among the treasures. I know how weak and inade- 
quate is this tribute, but, such as it is, I lay it with reverent hands 
upon his grave. Your Honor, these occasions are coming with 
startling frequency. Each recurrence reminds us that 

"Some we loved, the loveliest and the best, 

That from his vintage rolling Time hath pressed. 
Have drunk their cup a round or two before, 
And one by one crept silently to rest," 

and that we who are left are hastening toward the sunset. 



44 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

SAMUEL B. PAGE, ESQ., OF HAVERHILL. 

Forty-three years ago the present winter, when a boy of nine- 
teen, I was engaged teaching a district school in Judge Bingham's 
native town, Concord, Vermont. A sturdy old Vermont Demo- 
crat, with whom I boarded, who loved "Judge" Bingham, as he 
was called in those days, — and loved him especially for his stout 
and aggressive devotion to Jeffersonian democracy, and because 
of his pride in him as a townsman by birth, — took me to Little- 
ton, my own birthplace, and introduced me to Harry Bingham, 
then in the full flush of a vigorous manhood. During that win- 
ter I called at his office several times, and the outcome of this was 
my entrance into his office as a law student the following year. 

I am not qualified to speak of the character of this noble and 
admirable man save from the standpoint of my first impressions, 
which never faded, but from year to year, in our constant inter- 
course, became more fixed, — indeed, they can never be effaced 
or obscured. Furthermore, a young fellow naturally remembers 
best those things which were most useful and serviceable to him 
when he most needed service and encouragement. As I look 
back upon it, I feel that the Judge must have deemed me a 
strange sort of a duckling to be huddled in his nest, so entirely 
unlike were we in our mental characteristics ; and I can even now 
recall some of the comically quizzical looks that he would cast 
to meward when I jumped at a conclusion, which he would only 
have reached by more slow and logical and doubtless surer mental 
processes. 

During those student days and ever since, for his was a thor- 
oughly consistent life, lived up to the same high standard, I was 
and always have been most impressed by his unfailing kindness, 
his uniform courtesy, his tender and pardoning consideration for 
the weaknesses and faults of others, his generosity of heart and 
hand extended in every possible direction, and above all his vast 
and unassailable faith in humanity. I do not believe that Harry 
Bingham ever doubted the words or motives of a man who had 
once won his confidence. It would seem monstrous to a man of 
his make-up and unreserved faith in human nature that a friend 
could deceive or betray. His simplicity of manner, referred to 
here today by others, was but the reflection of his simplicity of 



BAR EULOGIES. 45 

character, — as he believed in and reverenced the Maker of the 
universe, so he believed in and honored man as the perfect work 
of the divine creation. 

I do not know, in these forty-three years of as long and inti- 
mate friendship as any man at the bar who is now living en- 
joyed, — I do not recall a single difference that ever arose be- 
tween us, either in professional or political life, with a single ex- 
ception, and this was so typical of the character of the Judge that 
I must be pardoned if I mention it. 

I entered the Legislature from the town of Warren in 1864. 
The Judge then represented the town of Littleton. Just before 
I opened my office in Warren there had been a homicide there 
and the community were much excited over it, which excitement 
went up to white heat later when the man who committed the act 
was discharged. To the popular mind it was a miscarriage of 
justice. The respondent had political influence and wealth and 
was naturally defended by the ablest of counsel, among them 
Harry Hibbard and Josiah Quincy, I think, and to these influ- 
ences the citizens attributed his discharge. Soon after, a mem- 
ber of the Shaker family in Enfield was shot and killed by a 
United States volunteer whose child was with the family and 
whom the soldier claimed he was not permitted to see. After a 
trial and a comparatively feeble defense, Wier, the respondent, 
was convicted, and at the convening of the Legislature he was in 
prison under sentence of death. A joint resolution was intro- 
duced into the House of Representatives requesting the Governor 
and council to commute the sentence. There was little really to 
be said in favor of the resolution save that the man had inter- 
posed no substantial defense. Judge Bingham, with his pro- 
foimd respect for law, and his conviction that only simple jus- 
tice had been done, very zealously opposed the passage of the 
resolution and in addition to discussing the merits of the case 
stated at the conclusion of the whole matter that it was something 
with which the Legislature had nothing to do, and he was un- 
doubtedly right. 

My sympathies were aroused in behalf of the almost friendless 
man — intensified by the conditions I have spoken of — and after 
the judge and several others had addressed that house adversely, 
I took the prisoner's case upon the floor, and, ignoring the legal 



46 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

side of the question, struck a sympathetic vein, and among other 
things talked about hanging this man for both murders, making 
of him a vicarious atonement for the Warren wrong, etc., — it was 
a speech with more of fire and passion than reason, very likely. 
The result was that we carried the house in favor of the resolu- 
tion by a majority of something like " 16 to 1, " and it was passed. 

After the House adjourned and as we were leaving the hall, 
the judge, who was as much exasperated with me as a man could 
be with a boy whom he had taught better things, put his hand 
on my shoulder and said, — "Young man, you have done little 
credit today to your legal training. ' ' But his resentment didn 't 
last long, for the next morning when he came into the House, 
he said, "Well, Sam, perhaps I judged you too harshly last night 
and was a little abrupt, not making proper allowance for your 
local environment and your youthful ardor, and yet, sir, I don't 
think I should have done that myself at your age. ' ' And I don 't 
think, your honor, I don't think he would. 

There is very little that can be said of Judge Bingham that 
has not already been said here, except in these more personal 
ways in which they more particularly appeal to me. I, of course, 
regard him as a great lawyer, but I regard him as a great man 
and a much greater man than lawyer, for this very fault of his 
nature, his absolute confidence in humanity,"''so frequently unde- 
served, is one of those faults leaning so close to virtue 's side that 
it adds an additional wreath of honor to his memory. 

w. p. buckley, esq., of lancaster. 

[letter.] 

Dear Brethren: Because of the interruption of communica- 
tion by the great Galveston storm, at the time of the funeral of 
our late and revered and honored brother, Harry Bingham, I 
was prevented from acting as one of the pallbearers, a sad office 
which I would gladly have filled, and the whole a circumstance 
I shall never cease to regret. It was my purpose and my hope 
to be present with you today, on the occasion of the memorial 
exercises, but now, at the last moment, the exigencies of my cli- 
ent's cause — the neglect of which none would deprecate more 
than he — doom me to another disappointment. 



BAR EULOGIES. 47 

During the few years since my coming to the bar it has been 
my lot to be present on far too many occasions like that you are 
attending today ; and though I have always had a desire to add 
my testimonial or friendly criticism to the words of my brethren, 
some mentor has ever restrained me; but on this occasion the 
same voice which erstwhile enjoined silence bids me speak — even 
though it be through the cold medium of the pen. 

It is not for me to speak of our deceased brother's greatness 
in the profession he has so highly honored; only those whose 
abilities more nearly approximated his can qualify as critics of 
his masterly legal mind. Nor would I, if present, undertake to 
gauge his broad learning in what the world is pleased to call po- 
lite literature, the classics, ancient and modem, in poetry and 
prose ; history, religious and secular ; the sciences and the arts ; 
statecraft and philosophy. The critic who has made each of 
these his life study is alone justified in undertaking a just esti- 
mate. Our law reports, the proceedings of the several bar asso- 
ciations, his published pamphlets — all too few — and the journals 
of the Legislature furnish but meager evidence of the real great- 
ness of the lawyer, statesman, scholar and philosopher. 

It may be a selfish thought — but only so in a Helvetian sense 
because it is in the interest of humanity — to think that one of 
the chief causes for regret, on occasions such as this, when we 
meet to memorialize one who has been gathered home ripe in 
years and rich in wisdom — it is a cause of regret, I say — that we, 
who live after, can but admire and imitate, and cannot become 
legatees of that vast store of learning which nature has decreed 
shall, in a large measure, pass on with him who amassed it. 

In recent years those of us who knew Harry Bingham well 
— and for that reason loved him — were accustomed to refer to 
him, in his absence, as ' ' the Grand Old Man, ' ' even as those who 
knew and admired Gladstone spoke of that distinguished scholar 
and statesman. But I doubt if any one were earlier impressed 
with the similarity of character and accomplishments than my- 
self. As his office boy in my school days, and as student in later 
years, the "Judge," as we were wont to call him, was ever a 
visible example of all I had ever read of the other ' ' Grand Old 
Man," over seas. And I am constrained to believe that strict 
adherence to principle which bound him to the minority in poll- 



48 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

tics alone prevented his name and fame from being all in the new 
world that those of his illustrious prototpye were in the old. 

His portrait looks down at me now as I write. The evidence 
of strength in his massive head and firmly set chin detracts 
nothing from the kindliness that beams from his large, soft, 
ox-like eye. The picture speaks to me of student days; it tells 
me of his quaint, original humor; it relates again his fund of 
anecdote and reminiscence; it reminds me of a natural stern- 
ness that was never unkindness — of an abruptness that was al- 
ways a caution, but never a sting. I can see the gray-haired man 
at midnight, fenced in by a wall of books, heedless of time, or 
person, or circumstance, deaf to all inquiry, and blind to all 
views except the authority he was digesting. And I can see 
him again, in an hour of relaxation, seated at whist with his three 
students, his face agleam and his heart in the game. And among 
the many elements which must finally be considered in making a 
proper estimate of Harry Bingham's grand character, not the 
least will be the large number of students who have gone from 
his office to the bar, and there given evidence of his wisdom by 
their conduct, and there testified to their appreciation of him 
by their unswerving loyalty. 

If I were to mention the characteristics which to my mind 
made him facile princeps among his brethren, I should place at 
the head of the list his great power of concentration and his re- 
markable memory. Of both of these, many instances, remark- 
able as well as pleasing to remember, recur to me; but they 
would be unfitting this time and place. Suffice it to say that I 
loved him, and, when I learned that nature had summoned him 
to his last, long sleep, while I felt keenly my personal loss, I 
could not refrain from feeling and expressing the greater calam- 
ity — ''The world has lost a man/' 

hon. lewis w. fling of bristol. 

[letter.] 

Brother Mitchell: Yours, informing me of a meeting of the 
bar at "Woodsville next Tuesday to consider the resolutions you 
presented to the court at Plymouth, upon the death of Judge 
Harry Bingham, came last evening, and I thank you for the no- 



BAR EVLOaiES. 49 

tice and for the invitation to speak before the court and bar, 
words in eulogy of our deceased friend and brother. 

I should be glad to be present in body, but I, too, am old and 
the weather cold, the distance seems far, and I feel it would be 
safer for me to remain at home, but in spirit I shall surely be 
with you and one of you. 

Of course I could say nothing new of Judge Bingham, and 
nothing that I could say would add anything to his fame as a 
man and brother. 

I knew him for half a century ; but I must not give details of 
personal reminiscence. In social life he was inimitable, and 
more could be said of interest on this line, to those who knew him 
well, than of any other man of my acquaintance. I can seem to see 
him now, as he came into court and took his seat in the bar ; his 
lion-like face, his smile (he seldom laughed aloud), his close ob- 
servance of all that was passing, his earnestness in debate, his 
pushing back his coat sleeves as he warmed up to the subject, 
his look at his antagonist, who was often Harry Hibbard or 
Judge Carpenter, Judge Bellows, ]\Ir. Quincy, all great lawj^ers; 
but no matter who the foe was, whether of the New Hampshire 
bar or from another state, Harry Bingham was his peer, his 
equal, if not his superior. 

Professionally, I know of nothing more apt or true than what 
was said on a like occasion of another great lawyer, — that he was 
of noble and dignified bearing and distinguished personal ap- 
pearance and presence. A close and cogent reasoner, a lucid 
expresser, with a singular legal insight and mastery of legal prin- 
ciple, he was a friend to be loved, and an antagonist to be 
feared. 

Thinking of the fame of a great lawj^er, I am reminded of 
what ex-Governor Hubbard said in his eulogy of "William Hun- 
gerford, printed in the 39th Conn. Reports: "And now, when 
I consider this long life closed — these many years ended of emi- 
nent labor in the highest ranks of the forum, and nothing left 
of it but a tolling bell, a handful of earth, and a passing tradi- 
tion — I am reminded of the infelicity which attends the repu- 
tation of a great lawyer. To my thinking, the most vigorous 
brain work of the world is done in the ranks of our profession. 
The world accepts the work, but forgets the workers. ' ' 



50 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

We shall never forget Harry Bingham; we shall turn to his 
great example as a lawyer for guidance and inspiration. 

HON. JAMES W. REMICK OF LITTLETON. 

I count it the most fortunate circumstance in my own brief 
and humble career at the bar that it was begun in the home town 
of those legal giants, Harry and George A. Bingham, and at a 
time when they were in the full strength and maturity of their 
power. The pleasure of self-conscious importance, which is 
sometimes the privilege of the young la^vyer in a country com- 
munity, was impossible in contact with these men. On the con- 
trary, to such a one their towering eminence gave a depressing 
sense of insignificance and obscurity. In the shadow of their 
greatness, it was for him to be a sort of chore-boy in the pro- 
fession. But for all the deprivations for which they were re- 
sponsible, in the way of early recognition, youthful conceits, and 
adventitious success, they compensated a thousandfold by the 
lasting inspiration and helpfulness of their example and associ- 
ation. 

A few years ago, upon an occasion similar to this, moved by 
a deep sense of obligation and respect, I paid my poor tribute to 
the memory of George A. Bingham. And upon this occasion, 
moved by the same spirit, I wish to record a word in honor of 
the elder brother, who, in the course of human destiny, has, in 
turn, passed to the mysterious beyond. 

Never was maternal love more richly rewarded than in the 
birth and life of the brothers, Harry, George and Edward Bing- 
ham. Three sons, and every one a king among his fellows — 
kingly in stature, pose and step ; kingly in eye, voice and gesture ; 
kingly in mind, will and character. All majestic men, yet some- 
how, to the mother, to the brothers, to you and to me, Harry, 
the elder, the college graduate, the midnight student, the lone 
bachelor, stood unique and transcendent among them. George 
and Edward — distinctively, if not exclusively, lawyers. Harry 
— lawyer, statesman, scholar, sage and philosopher. As a law- 
yer, he was worthy to sit with the great men who adorn the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. As a statesman, he belonged 
with those who, in earlier times, fashioned the republic and 



BAR EULOGIES. 51 

wrote ''The Federalist," and with the Edmunds, the Thurmans, 
and the Shermans of modern days. As a scholar and philosopher, 
he was a marvel to all who were admitted into his life of study 
and contemplation. For virility of mind, breadth of vision, and 
w^ealth of learning, he belonged to the highest classification. 

In the last few years this association has mourned the loss of 
many great men ; but, by common consent, we mourn today the 
greatest of them all. To this rank, those we have mourned be- 
fore, assigned him, while they moved together in this world. 
In calling him first, therefore, we make no invidious distinc- 
tion; we but recognize a preeminence which they acknowledged. 

To those who find his measure in the offices he held, and the 
attention he attracted in the nation at large, our estimate may 
seem exaggerated. • Indeed, his fame was in no way commensur- 
ate with his ability. This argues nothing against the latter. 

Reputation, as has been well said, is ' ' Oft won without merit 
and lost without deserving. ' ' It should not be confounded with 
character, nor political notoriety mistaken for true greatness. 
"The grasshoppers make the fields ring with their importunate 
chinks, while the great cattle chew the cud and are silent." By 
means of wealth, brazen self-assertion, political craftiness and 
snare-drum eloquence, hundreds of men are famous today, as so- 
called politicians and statesmen, who were not worthy to unloose 
the latchets of his shoes. Wealth, position and reputation are 
but the trappings of circumstance. The true test of a man is the 
measure and quality of his mind, heart and soul. 

If my Brother Drew were elected United States senator to- 
morrow, it would add nothing to the superb qualities which so 
admirably fit him for that place. Harry Bingham was never a 
senator of the United States, but he was immeasurably greater 
than many who are, and no one will question that he was worthy 
to be. To deserve a high office is a dignity to which no man has 
attained who has simply secured it. 

Those who, conscious of his power, stood by him in his last 
hours, and saw the great light fade and go out, may well ask, 
in view of the scant visible reward and apparent end of all, 
"What profit hath a man of all his labor?" 

As a result of his work, Harry Bingham's mental horizon em- 
braced the earth, and all planets and races and times. The 



52 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

origin and development of man, civilization, and government 
were to him an open book. Sitting in his office, among the hills 
he loved so well, he could close his eyes and see the whole world 
as a panorama — as it was and as it is. 

Suppose that death ends aU ; was not his capacity to hold com- 
munion with all that is and all that has been, source of infinite 
satisfaction and profit enough ? But death does not end all. He 
still lives, at least in your lives and mine. By such individual 
endeavor, operating in invisible ways upon the generations, man- 
kind has advanced and is still advancing. Is it not profit 
enough, when death comes, to know that we have contributed 
our most to this great forward movement? And finally, if, as 
we believe, death is but transition, who shall measure the eternal 
advantage of a life of noble and strenuous endeavor here ? 

HON. A. S. BATCHELLOR OF LITTLETON. 

Mr. President: 

It was Mr. Bingham's fortune to work out his career in an en- 
vironment that set bounds to his reputation in no wise corres- 
ponding with his talents. He was the product of the intellect- 
ual and moral development of the historic Connecticut stock 
which had occupied the Connecticut Eiver valley and had given 
character to a succession of generations on that fertile and pros- 
perous domain. Out of this same region Salmon P. Chase and 
Thaddeus Stevens strode to the highest seats of power and pres- 
tige. Had it been fated that Harry Bingham should go out into 
a wider sphere of action — into a more central arena — as they did, 
he would have stood with them, by universal consent, as well as 
in fact, a peer among the ablest lawyers and the most potential 
statesmen of his time. 

He was called to the bar in 1846 with a character well settled 
in the essential principles which dominated his after life. He 
kept high ideals always in view for his own guidance. His char- 
acter was distinguished by a devout and patriotic mentality. 
His integrity was rock-ribbed. The political doctrines of his 
fathers were ingrained in him. His religious nature was con- 
genital. His devotion to fundamental principles related to so- 
cial order and human conduct was a conspicuous feature of his 



BAR EULOGIES. 53 

stalwart manhood. He was at the same time an intensely prac- 
tical man. He wasted no time or effort in pursuit of the unat- 
tainable. He was not unconscious of his own intellectual and 
moral strength — his ability to grapple with any of the concerns 
of government, with any of the questions of the learned in sci- 
ence and philosophy, and with any of the problems of life. He 
had the courage to undertake and the skill to accomplish the re- 
duction of theories in administration and legislation, — however 
novel and unpromising, if actually sound and workable — into the 
concrete of actual affairs. In the severe curriculum of his pro- 
fessional life, however, he never subordinated the legitimate de- 
mands which belonged to an extensive, important and exacting 
clientage to the ulterior demands of interests or ambitions con- 
flicting with an unalterable purpose to deserve high distinction 
as a jurist. Thus it was inevitable that he should compass the 
largest honors and the most substantial rewards ; and to this end 
he devoted the incessant labors of a professional lifetime covering 
a period of more than half a century. In parallel with this pro- 
fessional duty and labor which he bore with steady purpose in 
all these years, he assumed large responsibilities in politics and 
indulged in extensive diversions in literature. 

It is in compliance with suggestions from my brothers of this 
association that on this occasion, as my contribution to the mem- 
orials of Mr. Bingham, I attempt to treat in some measure of 
his relations to literature. 

As a student of literature his individuality was notable. He 
read with system, with deliberation, with persistence and with 
well-defined purpose. He used books as means of recreation as 
well as instruments in serious business. At times when he could 
not advantageously employ himself in the duties of his profes- 
sion, he almost invariably resorted to books, choosing from those 
of a lighter or a heavier quality accordingly as he was in need of 
mental rest and diversion, or in search of material with which 
to satisfy the requirements of some line of investigation, prac- 
tical or theoretical. All the time that he devoted to books he 
divided between the critical perusal of the text and reflection 
upon that reading, accompanied by a systematic laying away 
in the recesses of his memory of all that he regarded as of pos- 
sible value or use to him in the future. His domestic relations 



54 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

permitted him to make his books his closest companions. 
Whether he might be engaged in the study of the literature of 
the law, or that of other departments of learning, he was oblivi- 
ous to the passage of time, and it was the rule with him, rather 
than the exception, to continue thus occupied, without apparent 
weariness and without apparent flagging of interest, until he 
would be well into the small hours of the morning upon some 
work in philosophy, science, history, government or theology. 
This was no spasmodic or temporary manifestation of interest 
in literature. Probably no one who knew him well can remember 
when these were not the settled characteristics of his literary life. 
His knowledge under these habits became encyclopedic. His at- 
tainments were remarkable, as well in respect to their accuracy 
as in respect to their variety and extent. At the conclusion of 
any prolonged effort requiring continued and laborious absorp- 
tion in his business he returned to these same sources of rest, 
recreation and mental recuperation. For these uses he did not 
despise the productions of the humorists, from Artemus Ward 
to Mark Twain, or the lighter grades of current literature and 
the novels of ephemeral character. Always having his acquisi- 
tions, gained in these various directions, well in hand, he was 
ready with apt quotations and effective illustrations to give his 
arguments and addresses a quality which added largely to their 
effectiveness before a court, a jury, or a general audience. He 
had examined to good purpose such a wide range of authors that 
auditors and readers have often been surprised at the freshness, 
as well as the aptness, of his illustrations drawn from unfamiliar 
sources. Many passages which we find in his writings under 
quotation marks cannot be located by the books of familiar ab- 
stracts. He drew directly from the storehouse of his memory 
and seldom resorted to these compilations of literary "ready 
reckoning. ' ' 

It was inevitable that a style of writing under these methods 
and conditions would be developed peculiar to himself and in- 
dividualized somewhat in conformity to his native cast of mind, 
the methods and directions of his early education, his social and 
business environment, the requirements of his professional work, 
and the character of his studies in the various departments of the 
literature in which he delved. He was master of a strong 



BAR EULOGIES. 55 

idiomatic English. Not a little character was given to it by his 
familiarity with such great English classics as Shakespeare and 
the King James version of the Holy Scripture. His mind 
worked on straight lines. The larger part of his writings are 
argumentative, but a not infrequent employment of the argu- 
mentum ad hominum, as well as pointed and well-timed irony 
and invective, is observable in his speeches and writings. He 
was a thorough master of the principles of logic, and an adept 
in the most recondite and most effective methods of the logicians. 
He never failed to discover and expose the absence of sound log- 
ical structure and the existence of essential weakness in the po- 
sitions of his opponents. It often transpired, however, that 
when he was compelled to a line of argument in which some sort 
of sophism was unavoidable, his skill and method in that form 
of dialectics were so effective that only the best equipped and 
most discerning opponents could make headway against him. 
He was strong in controversy. He flinched before no antag- 
onists. He wielded a heavy battle-axe in every contest in which 
he entered. There was never any doubt as to the part which he 
had espoused or of his determination to win out in the end and 
to convince his opponent that whoever threw down the gaunt- 
let before him must fight to the finish. A review of his life as 
a student and a writer would seem to be fairly susceptible of a 
division into two parts, — one being that of controversy, and the 
other that of philosophical production. 

In the first fifteen years of his professional life he was more 
conspicuous as a rising practitioner, engaged in court contests 
and as an active leader in the politics of his section of the state, 
than as a devotee of literature. 

He was not in youth and early manhood the beneficiary of 
adventitious aids from liberal patrimony, or social prominence 
in antecedents or surroundings. In the fifteen years from the 
date of his admission to the bar to the beginning of the Civil 
War he was constructing the foundation of personal influence 
and armoring himself in self-reliance. He had held no civil 
office of importance, and had contributed nothing which he re- 
garded as of enduring quality in constructive literature, except 
as he was impressing his individuality and genius upon the sys- 
tem of law which was in process of development in the court re- 



56 * HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ports of adjudicated cases of the time of Parker, Gilchrist, 
"Woods, Perley and Bell. 

He delivered a Fourth of July oration in 1853, on an occasion 
and under circumstances which were not propitious for such an 
effort as would have best suited his methods, temperament and 
purpose, which were as a rule direct and serious in public speech. 

He contributed controversial articles to the local and state 
papers in those years. They were of the offensive and defensive 
style and character which were appropriate to the political con- 
ditions under which he wrote. In these articles he dealt with 
persons and politics as if he were more interested in the pene- 
trative efficiency of the projectiles than in the symmetry of the 
weapons. 

In 1861 he entered upon a legislative career which occupied 
some part of almost every year of two distinct periods, the last 
ending in 1891. 

It is within bounds to describe the earlier of these periods as 
one of intense political antagonism. Mr. Bingham had become 
an intellectual leader of his party. The journals of the Senate 
and House, informal reports, resolutions, and protests disclose his 
attitude towards the far-reaching issues then passing under fierce 
debate. In 1861 he reported and supported a protest against 
legislation which was proposed to give the Grovemor of the state 
new and extraordinary powers not duly restricted and guarded. 
This act was chapter 2409 of the Laws of 1861. While recog- 
nizing the urgency of the occasion and the necessity for adequate 
measures for the prosecution of the war, Mr. Bingham saw no 
reason for ignoring the ordinary precautions in legislation which 
common prudence dictates in safeguarding the public treasury, 
and in requiring every department of the state government to 
conform to constitutional limitations in administration and legis- 
lation, even in time of war. With statesmanlike foresight he dis- 
cerned the tendency to extravagance and irresponsible exercise 
of executive power in this bill, which turned the executive de- 
partment loose in the expenditure of the proceeds of a state loan 
practically at its discretion within the limit of one million dol- 
lars. 

Mr. Bingham was returned to the Legislature each year from 
1861 to 1865 inclusive. 



BAR EULOGIES. 57 

These years were an epoch for the nation, for political parties, 
for the state, and for a vast multitude of individuals both in 
public life and private stations. 

Mr. Bingham's record in the Legislature in this momentous ex- 
igency is straightforward, consistent and courageous. He stood 
unmoved by popular clamor, upon fixed principles which he re- 
garded as adaptable and adequate to all the exigencies of gov- 
ernment. 

This is not the occasion for a discussion of the merits of his 
contention on public issues which were uppermost in the time 
of the war for the Union, and it will not be attempted in this 
connection. 

In addition to the protest which is recorded in the Journal 
of the House for 1861, we find in the report of the minority of 
the committee on national affairs a series of resolutions which 
bear internal evidence of Mr. Bingham's authorship, although 
the record does not indicate that he was a member of the com- 
mittee. 

In 1862 the majority of the committee on national affairs 
presented a report, and a counter statement on the part of the 
minority accompanied it. Later, William L. Foster submitted 
his views separately. Mr. Bingham appears to have endorsed 
the principal minority report, and very likely was instrumental 
in its formulation. Later the majority, under the lead of James 
W. Patterson, offered amendments to their report and to that 
of Mr, Foster. Mr. Bingham's proposition to amend the report 
submitted by Mr. Foster further indicated his attitude on the 
questions presented for discussion by these several submissions 
of resolutions for the consideration of the House and the points 
on which he differed from Mr. Foster. 

In 1863 he was, with John G. Sinclair, Thomas J. Smith, and 
"William W. Bailey, a minority member of the committee on na- 
tional affairs. Again a minority report was presented, undoubt- 
edly of Mr. Bingham's construction. 

At the July session in 1864 the views of the minority on na- 
tional affairs were submitted in a preamble and resolutions by 
Mr. Bingham, Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Smith and Mr, Asa P. Gate. 
This was on the eve of the presidential election of that year, and 
the declaration, besides reiterating the doctrines set forth in 



58 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

previous years, indicates clearly the position of the New Hamp- 
shire Democracy with regard to the possibility and desirability 
of negotiations for peace on the basis of a restored Union under 
the Constitution. 

At the special session, which occurred in August following, 
perhaps the most strenuous of all the contests which were waged 
between the representatives of the two parties in the Legislature 
of this state in the war period, was precipitated by the proposed 
legislation to enable men who were in distant sections of the 
country in the military service in the federal army to vote at 
the front for electors of president and vice-president. 

Mr. Bingham and his political associates strenuously opposed 
this measure as unconstitutional, as in bad policy, and as an en- 
tering wedge for practices which, continued and repeated in the 
future, would inevitably expose the civil power to unwarranted 
domination by ambitious and unprincipled commanders of the 
armies of the republic. 

The governor of the state came into alignment with the Dem- 
ocracy in opposition to this measure, but the House in which the 
measure originated did not permit his veto measure to be re- 
ceived seasonably.. 

Upon the requisition of both houses the Supreme Court re- 
turned an opinion sustaining the validity of the law, notwith- 
standing the failure of the Governor to give it his approval, and 
notwithstanding his efforts to interpose a veto under circum- 
stances which are now a matter of history. 

The fiscal affairs of the state and the controversy between 
General Harriman and the officers of his regiment elicited 
formal statements from Mr. Bingham and Mr. Sinclair which 
were entered upon the record and make up a part of the story 
of the stirring events of that memorable session. 

At the time of the June session, 1865, the war had been con- 
cluded, President Lincoln had been assassinated, Andrew John- 
son had succeeded to the presidency, and the great questions of 
reconstruction were taking form in which they were destined to 
divide the people in several succeeding years of bitter contro- 
versy. 

The committee on national affairs in the House of Represent- 
atives at this early date pronounced for an elective franchise, 



BAR EULOGIES. 59 

based upon loyalty to the Constitution and Union, and recogniz- 
ing and affirming the equality of all men before the law, and de- 
clared that, in the reorganization of the rebellious states, both 
justice and safety required that ample provision be made for 
the protection of the freedmen. 

In a minority report Mr, Bingham, Mr. E. A. Hibbard join- 
ing with him, presented a series of resolutions which again stated 
Mr. Bingham's already well-known views on the constitutional 
relations of the federal government and the states, and clearly 
foreshadowed the position that his party would take with ref- 
erence to the subject of reconstruction. 

Although elected to the Legislature in 1868, Mr. Bingham did 
not take a seat in that body nor qualify as a member. His 
legislative career was not resumed until 1871. 

In the ten years that followed the close of the war he was 
largely devoted to the demands of a law practice which was rap- 
idly increasing, both in respect to its importance and volume. 
The repoiis of cases in the Supreme Court in a meager way in- 
dicate the intense labor and exhaustive investigation which he 
bestowed upon the cases with which he was identified. 

He was also at the same time entering into relations with the 
national organization of his party as one of its most reliable co- 
adjutors in management and one of its soundest authorities on 
questions of party doctrine and party principle. 

Practically aU the published literature that emanated from 
him in this decade related to law or politics. He assisted or 
was consulted in formulating all, or nearly all, the declarations 
of principle and policy in the state conventions of his party 
in New Hampshire ; and he was in attendance at the national con- 
vention at New York in 1868 as national committee man, and 
was a member of the committee on resolutions in the Bal- 
timore convention of 1872. In fact, he was always a member of 
the committee on resolutions in the national conventions in which 
he was a delegate, the later ones being those of 1880, 1884, and 
1892. 

A diverting incident in the political contentions of those days 
was Mr. Bingham's contribution to the controversy between Mr. 
Fogg and Mr. Chandler, which occupied public attention in 1868 
and 1869. Mr. Sinclair had been brought into it by statements 



60 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

to the effect that Mr. Fogg and Mr. Sinclair had been in secret 
consultation with reference to the possible nomination of Chief 
Justice Chase by the Democratic national convention of 1868. 
Mr. Bingham came to the defense of Mr. Sinclair in an article 
occupying a broadside in the White Mountain Republic of De- 
cember 3, 1869. The gentler amenities of polemics do not char- 
acterize this article. It is one of those defenses which consist 
principally in carrying the war into the enemy's camp. 

In the following winter his next formal discussion of current 
political issues appeared in his address as president of the Dem- 
ocratic convention, which enunciated a platform and presented 
candidates for the approaching March election. This may be 
regarded as the last chapter of his published papers in advocacy 
of the policies for which the Democracy stood in the reconstruc- 
tion period. 

At this point it may be pertinent to refer to the address of 
Mr. Bingham before the Granite State Club of Manchester, June 
27, 1888, on "The Life and Democracy of John H. George." 
Mr. Bingham and Colonel George had been intimate political 
and personal friends in the three periods which antedated the his- 
toric change of front which the national Democracy executed in 
1872. One of these would be the ante-war period from 1845 
to 1860 ; the next, the war period ; and the next, the reconstruc- 
tion period. In a review of the political career of Colonel 
George, which was contemporary with that of Mr. Bingham, and 
in an exposition of the political principles entertained and ad- 
vocated by the former, Mr. Bingham necessarily pursued a course 
in his narrative which was almost equivalent to an autobiog- 
raphy. Eighteen years after the termination of the so-called re- 
construction period, Mr. Bingham was able to view the events 
of which he and his co-worker were a part, and the environment 
in which they waged their losing battles, from a wider perspec- 
tive and with a better and cooler conception of the acts and mo- 
tives of the contending parties. This biography of Colonel 
George must, for manifest reasons, be regarded as one of the most 
important and interesting of Mr. Bingham's contributions to 
contemporary biography and political history. 

In 1876 he delivered a centennial address on the occasion of 
the celebration at Littleton of the one hundreth anniversary of 



BAR EULOGIES. 61 

the Declaration of Independence. This address was to a con- 
siderable extent a philosophical treatment of the development of 
the federal government and a discussion of some of the present 
mischiefs apparent in the conditions which had recently resulted 
from notable changes in the organic law and in political methods. 
He dwelt with special emphasis upon the dangerous progress 
that was observable in the demoralization of the suffrage by the 
direct exercise of unlawful and even corrupt influences upon 
the voters. 

A few years later he delivered two notable addresses which 
were afterwards published in pamphlet form, one in the spring 
of 1880, a Memorial Day address before Marshal Sanders Post, 
G. A. R., at Littleton, and the other the annual address in De- 
cember, 1882, before the Grafton and Coos Bar Association at 
Lancaster. 

These efforts were widely different, both in character and 
method. The former was a catholic, patriotic, and philosophical 
treatment of the results of the war, and an exposition of the 
position of high honor and deep responsibility which belonged to 
the great body of veterans whose valor had reestablished the 
Union and placed the governmental structure upon enduring 
foundations for the future. The other address was upon the sub- 
ject of "Certain Political Conditions and Tendencies which Im- 
peril the Integrity and Independence of the Judiciary." This 
was an arraignment of the court, and a denunciation of its 
methods, as that tribunal was at that time constituted, and as its 
policy was then formulated and directed by its chief justice. 
He attributed the then existing conditions, both in the federal 
and state judiciary, to the encroachment of party politics within 
that sphere which belonged exclusively to an independent ju- 
diciary. He urged as a remedy that the bar assert itself in ag- 
gressive and effective opposition to these demoralizing political 
conditions and tendencies. 

Mr. Bingham made a number of notable contributions to the 
literature of legal biography between 1880 and 1892. Among 
the prominent lawyers and judges as to whom he prepared ex- 
tended memorials were Andrew Salter Woods, 1880; Gilman 
Marston and Nathaniel Wait Westgate, 1887; John Hatch 
George, 1888, and William Spencer Ladd, 1892. Mr. Bingham's 



62 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

method in biography was to subordinate what are commonly- 
made prominent as biographical dates, statistics, facts, and events 
in the career of his subject, and to devote most of his attention 
to character analysis and to the relations of his subject with 
important events and measures. 

He was not an infrequent contributor to periodical literature. 
Among his more carefully prepared political essays might be 
mentioned an article in the Manchester Union, February 14, 
1883, under the title "The Political Situation," and one in 
the Riverside Magazine of Concord, in 1890, on ''The Issues at 
Stake," to which Senator Chandler contributed a reply in the 
same publication. 

In the long contest which was maintained between the rival rail- 
road systems in New Hampshire, occupying the attention of the 
Legislature and the courts from about 1870 to about 1890, Mr. 
Bingham was a conspicuous and potent factor. This most im- 
portant epoch in the industrial, corporate, legislative, judicial, 
and political history of the state has its own literature, which is 
as important and interesting as it is voluminous. Mr. Bing- 
ham's elaborate and exhaustive argument on the "Hazen" bill 
and the "Atherton" bill, nominally before the railroad commit- 
tee of the house in 1887, but really before almost the entire mem- 
bership of the state government and the auxiliary forces, was 
one of the events of that remarkable session. Many of his most 
carefully prepared, most characteristic and most effective argu- 
ments on the railroad issues of those years were not reported 
for the press, or delivered by him in form for preservation. 
Others of his briefs and arguments in that litigation are printed 
in papers and pamphlets, but now buried in court files and the 
inmost recesses of other Lethean repositories. When an ade- 
quate history of the transition period in railroad affairs and 
railroad progress in New Hampshire is written, a competent and 
impartial historian cannot fail to accord Harry Bingham the 
part of a most efficient directive force in the strategic and for- 
ensic working out of the far-reaching conceptions and results 
embodied in the railroad unification now accomplished, not only 
in New Hampshire, but in the entire area of northern New Eng- 
land. 

With but one intermission, from 1871 to 1891, Mr. Bingham 



BAR EULOGIES. 63 

served continuously as a legislator in the House, in the Consti- 
tutional Convention (1876), or the Senate. In this twenty years 
his masterful powers in debate were repeatedly tested. He was 
chairman of the House judiciary committee in 1871 and 1874, 
the only two years of his service in which his party was in the 
ascendency, and at every other session at which he was a sen- 
ator or representative he was a member of that committee. It 
is impossible to estimate the influence, both positive and negative, 
that he exerted in developing a sound, consistent and progressive 
system of statutory law. 

He contributed formal and carefully prepared arguments, re- 
ports and drafts of bills (among which were those relating to 
the protection of the ballot from corrupt influences, including 
the so-called Australian ballot bill), to the proceedings of these 
bodies, and many of them, embodying, in several instances, the 
results of his best efforts in research and presentation, are lost 
for want of adequate reporting by the press, or his own failure 
to extend them in manuscript. 

In any summary of these efforts mention should be made of 
his argument on the question of law raised by the contests be- 
tween Proctor and Todd, and Priest and Head over seats in 
the senate in 1875; his argument against abolition of capital 
punishment in 1877; his argument in opposition to the opinion 
of the court as to the election of a United States senator in 1881 ; 
his discussion of questions of taxation, the constitution of the 
courts, the regulation of corporations, the consolidation of rail- 
roads and the concession of other powers and privileges to them ; 
and, finally, his argument before the court and in the House of 
Representatives in 1891 on the duty of that tribunal and of the 
house in the exclusion of the so-called "if entitled" represent- 
atives-elect from seats in the House pending the organization of 
that body. 

This should not be regarded as in any sense a complete or 
methodical resume of even the more important forensic efforts 
and productions in the second period of his legislative career. 
It is, at best, but a brief and desultory attempt to call attention 
to the variety and extent of Mr. Bingham's labors in that field of 
his action and influence. 

In the fifty years of his identification with the Democratic 



64 HARRY BINOEAM MEMORIAL. 

party in constant and unvarying advancement from controlling 
local influence to extended national recognition, the organization 
encountered three transitional crises which were at least tempo- 
rarily disastrous to all the rational hopes it could entertain for 
immediate accession to the control of a national administration. 

These epochs were marked by the secession of the eleven states 
under the control of the southern wing of the party in 1860 and 
1861 — the change of front on national lines and the nomination 
of Mr. Greeley in 1872 — and the startling revolution in party 
policy and party conduct which culminated in the Chicago con- 
vention of 1896. 

Mr. Bingham refused to support any of the nominations for 
the presidency emanating from the national convention in 1860. 
He voted a ballot for electors bearing names which he selected 
for himself and which is unique in the town records for that 
election. He made no formal statement of his position at that 
time which has been preserved* 

In the Greeley campaign he was a delegate to the Baltimore 
convention, advocated the new departure and cordially and un- 
reservedly supported Mr. Greeley after he was accorded the Dem- 
ocratic nomination. 

He was president of the Democratic state convention follow- 
ing the national convention, and on that occasion (Sept. 13, 
1872) made an address singularly clear, straightforward and 
argumentative in support of the party ticket and the principles 
which had been formulated on the changed alignment of the two 
parties. This address was extensively circulated as a campaign 
document. 

In the recasting of Democratic policy, according to the edicts 
of the convention of 1896, Mr. Bingham regarded its action as 
a radical and unjustifiable departure from the essential princi- 
ples of genuine Democracy. He was president of the state 



*In the presidential election of 1860 the Lincoln and Hamlin ticket for 
electors had a considerable plurality in Littleton. The next largest vote 
was for the Douglas and Johnson ticket. The Breckenridge and Lane 
ticket had a few votes, as did the so-called Union or Bell and Everett 
ticket. Mr. Bingham, however, preferred not to vote either of these 
tickets. He made one for electors to suit himself on which appeared 
the names of Franklin Pierce, Harry Hibbard, Jeremiah Blodgett, Na- 
thaniel Swazey, and William Heywood. This ticket had only one vote 
in Littleton, and that was cast by Mr. Bingham. 



BAR EULOGIES. 65 

Democratic convention in the spring, preceding the session of the 
national convention, and delivered a carefully prepared address 
in which he presented his views on the tariff, the currency, and 
other pending questions with conspicuous lucidity and direct- 
ness. In the ensuing fall he presided at the convention of the 
national Democracy called in protest against the policy of ac- 
cepting and endorsing the platform and candidates of the Chi- 
cago convention, and on this occasion delivered another char- 
acteristic, cogent and convincing address, taking as his theme, 
* ' The Present Duty of the Democracy. ' ' 

These two addresses were published in one pamphlet, under 
the title, ' ' Consistent Adherence to Democratic Principles, ' ' and 
extensively circulated in the campaign then pending. To these 
two statements recourse must be had for the evidence of the at- 
titude and opinion of Mr. Bingham on the issues which were the 
result of the political upheaval of 1896 — for his deliberate and 
unbiased judgment rendered at the termination of fifty years 
of party service, distinguished by unselfish loyalty, unfailing per- 
sistency and courage, and an intellectual primacy in leadership 
which find no parallel in the later history of the New Hampshire 
Democracy. 

In the years that ensued between the termination of his 
legislative career in 1891 and his death in 1900, he withdrew 
himself gradually from the active duties of his profession and 
devoted his time largely to renewed research in such directions 
as would afford material for literary productions which he had 
long contemplated. He accomplished before 1898 all of these 
later undertakings that he had given himself to do. This work 
took the form of addresses and monographs, the dates and titles 
of which were as follows : 

"The Muniments of Constitutional Liberty," address before 
the Grafton and Coos Bar Association at Berlin, Jan. 26, 1894. 

"Progress in Asiatic Civilization and its Significance for the 
"Western World," address before the same association at Little- 
ton, Feb. 14, 1895. 

"The Rights and Responsibilities of the United States in Ref- 
erence to the International Relations of the Great Powers of 
Europe and the Lesser Republics of America," an address before 
Marshal Sanders Post, G. A. R., at Littleton, Dec. 26, 1895. 

5 



66 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

"The Welfare of the Republic, the Supreme Law," address 
before the Grafton and Coos Bar Association at Lancaster, Jan. 
31, 1896. 

"The Relations of Woman to the Progressive Civilization of 
the Age," an address before the Grafton and Coos Bar Associ- 
ation at Plymouth, Jan. 29, 1897. 

"The Influence of Religion on Human Progress," address be- 
fore the New Hampshire Historical Society, June 8, 1897. 

"The Annexation of Hawaii; a Right and Duty," address 
before the Grafton and Coos Bar Association at Woodsville, 
Jan. 28, 1898. 

These essays invite and challenge the most critical examination 
and analysis. They are already familiar to a limited circle of 
students and readers and to those who happened to be in at- 
tendance upon the occasions of their delivery by the author. 
The circumstances of this occasion do not permit a further re- 
view of the products of Mr. Bingham's labors in the domain of 
history, social science, education, religious progress, interna- 
tional relations, constitutional law and the science of government, 
but they will be accorded deserved recognition as a notable ser- 
ies of studies on great subjects, and, in the more serious discus- 
sions of the dominant questions of our time, as an invaluable 
deliverance of a master mind. 

HON. HENRY W. BLAIR OP MANCHESTER. 

Members of the Bar: 

I had thought to remain silent longer, until those who in recent 
years have been more closely connected with Brother Bingham 
should have paid their tribute to his memory. But as there is a 
pause I will say the few words that occur to me at this time. 
I was unaware of these contemplated proceedings until within 
a few hours, and am consequently unable to appear before you 
at this time with matured thought or formal expression. Really 
one ought not to speak of Judge Bingham without some prepara- 
tion. He was too unusual a man, too great a man; one cannot 
approach him casually, his real character and his life-work, and 
in a few unpremeditated phrases do him justice at all. It seems 
to me very much, your honor, like trying to analyze and explain 



BAR EULOGIES. gy 

the Pyramids, to portray Harry Bingham, as he stood among 
his fellow men. Brother Aldrich has come nearer to what I 
would have been glad to have said myself, had I been able to 
do it, than any portrayal of his character that I have heard or 
read, but I will say that from my knowledge of him for more 
than forty years, I most thoroughly approve of these resolutions 
They are just to him. They add nothing beyond what is his 
due, as I have known him, and I am glad to state now as my 
deliberate belief that in my life in many respects I have known 
no really greater man than Harry Bingham. I first recollect 
him in the year 1857 or 1858, when I was a student in the office 
of WiUiam Leverett of Plymouth. With his brother, George 
Bingham, who was also a great man, he came to Plymouth at 
that time to try the case of Page v. Parkers, for the defense. 
That case was the ruin of everybody connected with it but the 
lawyers. It lasted some ten or fifteen years. The Binghams 
were for the defense, and that other great firm of western Graf- 
ton County, the Rands, were for the plaintiff. As a student I 
attended the trial; not interested otherwise than as a student, 
but I got great benefit from listening to the gigantic forensic de- 
bates of that trial. Judge Bingham was then a man perhaps 38 
or 40 years of age. To my youthful eyes he was one of the ma- 
turer members of the profession. He was then already emi- 
nent, at a time when the bar was certainly great, that of Grafton 
and Coos counties, the inferior to the bar of no portion of the 
state,— I think the superior of any other part of New Hampshire 
m Its great lawyers at that time. In a few years he became 
proudly preeminent, not only among the lawyers of the north 
but of the entire commonwealth as I remember them,— all now 
passed away with but one or two exceptions. The only excep- 
tion that I recoUect, residing in our county, is Mr. Fling of Bris- 
tol, a most excellent lawyer himself and one of the keenest wits 
that ever graced the bar of any state or any country. 

At that time in the same town was the Hon. N. B. Byrant 
retired from practice at the present time, but I have never heard 
his superior before a jury, and I have heard Rufus Choate. 
I wouldn't say that he was as great a man as Choate in all re- 
spects, but I would allow Napoleon B. Bryant to face Rufus 
Choate before any New Hampshire or New England jury, and 



68 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

I would risk my own cause with Mr. Bryant as readily as with 
that great man. Then at Plymouth was Mr. Burrows. Many 
of you will remember him. He was a learned lawyer, the student 
of Chancellor Hobbs of Carroll County, a strong, vigorous man 
who once was well known throughout the state. Mr. Leverett, 
with whom I was a student, was a descendant of the great 
lexicographer. He was a man of great natural powers of mind, 
a very careful and thorough student, not so laborious in the 
practice of his profession as some, but no discredit to the great 
lawyers of Grafton County at that time. He was the brother-in- 
law of Chief Justice Perley. Just then was passing away from 
New Hampshire Mr. William C. Thompson, a son of Thomas W. 
Thompson, one of the earlier senators of our state, and a man 
in whose office Daniel Webster was a long-time student. Jo- 
siah Quincy was then at the bar in Rumney, a man of very great 
executive ability and the most successful man of his time before 
juries. The way Josiah Quincy would put the strong points of 
a case to a jury was remarkable, and very seldom did he fail in 
securing his verdict. That time Judge Sargent, with whom Mr. 
Fling had studied, was still located at Wentworth. I had heard 
him in still earlier life, while a boy, living a few miles from the 
court room, in the great murder trial of Dudley at Plymouth in 
1848 or 1849. He had been a very active practitioner, but at 
this time was just appointed to the bench. He was still well 
known as a practitioner and essentially was still a member of the 
bar. There was Mr. Weeks of Canaan, a relative of Judge Doe 
by marriage, and a great man, though not a showy lawyer. There 
was Mr. Blaisdell of Hanover, one of the courtliest gentlemen 
who ever appeared before courts or juries. There were great 
men at Haverhill. There was Lawyer Felton, who had no su- 
perior in his knowledge of the common law, and especially of 
real estate. Going further north there were great lawyers at 
Bath. There was Harry Hibbard, probably the best 1)6116 Uttre 
scholar that ever belonged to the New Hampshire bar. There 
have been no exceptions so far as I have known personally, un- 
less it might be his compeer. Chief Justice Carpenter, who so 
recently left us. Both were remarkable men in their general 
scholarship. Judge Carpenter I often met at his lodging while 
attending court at Plymouth or at Haverhill, after midnight, 



BAB EULOGIES. 69 

and would find him resting himself from the labors of the day 
by reading the classics in some modern or ancient tongue. He 
was familiar with the Spanish, the German, the French, and the 
Italian, and knew Greek and Latin as well almost as he did the 
English, and he always said that Hibbard was his superior. I 
have always thought that probably Mr. Hibbard was the superior 
of Judge Carpenter in the embellishments of education, but as 
an all-round educated lawyer and general scholar I think we 
have never had the superior of Judge Carpenter in New Hamp- 
shire. 

Then there were the two Eands. The most brilliant advocate 
of Northern New Hampshire, I think, was Mr. Edward Rand. 
He was exceedingly powerful and vigorous and had a noble voice 
that resounded through the court room. I can hear it in mem- 
ory now, as he poured forth the natural eloquence with which 
his being was subcharged and enforced the various proposi- 
tions of his case. No one could forget Ned Rand. His brother 
Charles was a great man, too, not so great in the presentation of 
causes, but he could cross-examine witnesses most marvelously, 
and could prepare a case as well as any one. The firm was a 
very difficult and powerful one with which to compete. 

Then we come to Littleton where the Binghams then lived. 
Harry was undoubtedly the greater, the stronger man of the two. 
That could be no discredit to his exceedingly able brother, af- 
terwards a very eminent jurist, and who possessed valuable ca- 
pacities not so marked in Harry, because you can say that of 
Harry Bingham that you cannot say of any other man who has 
practised at the bar of New Hampshire in my day, if my judg- 
ment can be relied upon. I looked upon Harry Bingham as on 
the whole the greatest man that I knew at the bar. I have 
never compared him with Judge Doe because I never knew Judge 
Doe at the bar. I have come to look upon Judge Doe as the in- 
ferior of no jurist whatever who has lived on American soil in 
native strength and vigor of intellect, in the disposition and de- 
termination to be right regardless of precedent, always to be 
right. I think he was one of the very greatest minds that has 
been produced upon American soil. As an all-round man, as a 
great lawyer, as a man who upon the bench would have been a 
great and a very great judge, I am inclined to think that Harry 



70 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Bingham stands and will live in the very first rank of the jur- 
ists of New Hampshire, and in the first rank, if it were so that 
he could be compared with them, of the jurists of America. He 
was from Vermont. I wish we could claim him as a son of New 
Hampshire, but we have done something for Vermont. And the 
two states are sisters. They have given to us a great deal of 
superior legal ability and of sterling manhood, and among all 
her contributions to New Hampshire or to both states, and to 
this jurisprudence, to eminence in legal ability and a high and 
excellent example to those who are to come after us, I think no 
man has set a higher standard than Harry Bingham of Ver- 
mont and of New Hampshire, of whom both states and the whole 
country, too, may well be proud. My knowledge of Judge 
Bingham during these later years has been principally that of 
one who has been largely himself outside the profession, but still 
observant of general affairs. Mr. Bingham was larger than his 
profession. I have known few men who thought more pro- 
foundly upon the great topics of the time than Mr. Bingham. 
He was learned. He went to the root of the matter, and while 
one might not always agree with him, and he was pertinacious 
and determined in adhering to his own opinions, one could never 
fail to respect the sterling integrity, the manliness of the man. 
I do not believe that Harry Bingham ever laid down a propo- 
sition in politics or in law that he did not at the time believe 
himself. If he might not have believed it under other circum- 
stances, if the exigencies of his cause required that for the in- 
terests of his client or of his case a certain line of propositions 
should be the truth, there was that in his mind which for the 
time being at least enabled him to believe it, for the benefit of 
his client if for no other reason ; but whenever the adventitious 
circumstances which affected the immediate cause under con- 
sideration were not present, when any great subject was pre- 
sented to his mind and it was essential that he should come to a 
correct conclusion, viewing the whole situation, Mr. Bingham 
then was capable of rising above the exigencies of common af- 
fairs and the particular case that might be in question. Then 
he took a broad, comprehensive and profound view of political 
philosophy and of human affairs. 

It is true that Judge Bingham was not identified with the 



BAR EULOGIES. 71 

dominant political party of his state nor of his country, but he 
adhered to the great fundamental principles of Democracy in 
its highest and best sense, and he was conscientiously devoted 
to it. If he came in these later years not to agree fully with the 
party to which he had been formally attached and with the lead- 
ership of which he had been so intimately connected for so many 
years, still I think Mr. Bingham was to the last a most thoroughly 
conscientious man in political opinion and in political action. 
I think, whether we agree with him or not in sentiment, we all 
can say, now that this great man is no more, that he was a most 
sincere and honest and noble man, 

I would gladly pay some suitable tribute to Harry Bingham. 
With more of consideration, more of time to have analyzed his 
qualities and to have dwelt upon the real public service which he 
rendered, I should have been glad to have said more to the court 
and to these gentlemen at the bar, with so few of whom I am now 
intimately acquainted; but I do think that among all the great 
men of the state with whom I have been to some extent associ- 
ated, and of most of whom, if not so much personally acquainted, 
I have had opportunities of observation, for real, genuine, native, 
original strength of mind, for power to grasp and tear to tatters 
if need be, in analytical and constructive force, Harry Bingham 
wa^the inferior of no man with whom I have been acquainted, 
and I gladly pay this slight, halting and feeble tribute to his 
memory. I would do him full justice, but of that I do not feel 
myself to be capable. As he approached the close of life, as I 
have known him, he was a well-ripened old man, yet never lack- 
ing in vigor to the very last. I respected that logic and vigor- 
ous power of intellect up to my very last communication with 
him, 

I saw him in Washington a few years since when he was on 
his way to Florida. He was then in his most genial mood. We 
discussed the events of our mutual lifetime. He remembered 
me as a youth at the bar. I remembered him always as a legal 
giant and a sage, and a very active one, in my early professional 
career. He was full of reminiscence, — a most kindly old gentle- 
man he was. He seemed to have nothing but the milk of human 
kindness for any and for all. Whatever of bitterness there had 
been in earlier contests between him and his brethren in the 



72 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

strenuous and athletic exercises of those days had all passed 
away. He seemed to look upon mankind and upon the beloved 
old state and the men who were strong in it with a feeling of the 
utmost kindness, and to judge everybody with a charity and with 
a justice that was most beautiful and becoming. I shall always 
remember that final interview between myself and Harry Bing- 
ham at Washington as one of the choicest recollections of my life. 
There is an expression of the poet upon Sheridan that comes to 
my mind as well worthy of Judge Bingham : 

Long shall we seek his likeness, 
Long in vain, and turn to all 
That may remain, 

sighing that Nature formed but one such man and broke the die 
in molding — Judge Bingham. 

This great light of our Northern bar was more than a lawyer ; 
he was a statesman and a philosopher. I believe, your honor, 
that his memory will live long after the great mass of the profes- 
sion, the great mass of the people of the state, shall have passed 
into oblivion. There was that in him that will survive, and as 
a great and good man I am glad of this opportunity to pay this 
humble tribute to the memory of Harry Bingham. 

HON. CHESTER B. JORDAN OF LANCASTER. 

May it please the Court: Members of the Bar: 

When I came here today I thought I could better pay my trib- 
ute of respect to the memory and the character of Judge Bing- 
ham by my mute presence than otherwise. But it has seemed 
fitting that I should say a word. I know you all believe I am 
willing to, if it is thought necessary or best, because there are 
none of us who knew Judge Bingham as well as most of us here 
did know him who are not willing to pour out the libations of 
our souls, which have been deeply touched by his death, upon the 
altar of affection. While what I may say may contain neither 
music, nor poetry, nor rhythm, nor study, nor preparation, yet 
the tribute will be none the less heartfelt and sincere. 

As has been said just now by my Brother Page, there is little 
that need be said, because the analysis of Judge Bingham's life 
and character was summed up and completely put before us by 



BAR EULOGIES. 73 

Judge Aldrieh ; and the other side— the tender, personal side — 
was most touchingly stated by this friend and bosom compan- 
ion of the Judge's for thirty years, my Brother Mitchell; and 
these other gentlemen have followed him in the same tender, per- 
suasive way, so there is nothing for me to say. And yet there 
is no man who has died in New Hampshire within my recollection 
of whom so much could be said, truthfully be said, so much of 
good, so much of greatness, so much of grandeur of character, 
the manliness of the man, as Senator Blair has so well stated, 
as of Judge Bingham. His fame is not confined to New Hamp- 
shire, not confined to the legal profession. No one can read his 
essay on the character of woman without having a more exalted 
opinion of women, of the woman who gave him birth, and of all 
her sisters throughout the range of the whole universe. No one 
can read the address that he gave us at our Bar Association in 
the time of the Venezuelan trouble without coming to the con- 
elusion that he was a great statesman. He knew the funda- 
mental principles upon which our fathers builded this magni- 
ficent structure. He knew how to maintain that structure, how 
to perpetuate the institutions which have grown up under the 
old flag and have come down to us to bless not only us but the 
whole world. No one can read his essay on the Christian reli- 
gion, be he atheist, be he sceptic, or what he will, without know- 
ing that Harry Bingham believed in the divinity of Christ; be- 
lieved in an Almighty God, and that there was a destiny, call it 
what you may, that is over men and the affairs of men, and that 
it behooves every one to have the white stone with the new 
name written in it. It sweetened his life and made a difference 
here, if it makes no difference hereafter. So I say, your honor, 
that as we not only listened to Harry Bingham, but as we have 
perused his works and got somewhat into the chambers of his 
memory and knew how he felt when he sat down to meditate, 
we have come to have a more exalted and a more noble idea of 
the methods that he pursued, and the trend of that great mind. 

I had known something of Harry Bingham before I came to 
Lancaster, a third of a century ago. He happened to come up 
into the North Country, and his name even then was upon the 
tongues of the prominent men. My friend. Brother Drew's fa- 
ther, used to worship at the shrine of Harry Bingham long ago. 



74 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

I made some inquiries about him. My lot was cast with a 
family when I was teaching in Stratford that knew something 
of Harry Bingham and the Bingham family. They were re- 
mote relatives on the Wheeler side, and they were brilliant 
people. I came to understand that Harry Bingham was well 
born. A man who is well born is more than half made. His 
future is more than half assured. So I followed him along and 
for myself realized what manner of man he was. 

I was up at Brunswick Springs a good many years ago spend- 
ing Sunday, and I found there Harry Bingham, George A. 
Bingham, Edward F. Bingham. Edward was the youngest, and 
the only one now living. He had come there from Ohio, where 
he had been seventeen years a judge. He is now in Washington. 
He was made chief justice of the Supreme Court in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, under the appointment of Grover Cleveland. 
Those three men were there, and after they had got their break- 
fast they came out, and I think the Judge had the old mare and 
a Concord wagon, and that old carpet was hanging out the rear 
end of it, — as you have seen it, — and they got in. I sat there on 
the porch and wondered at that load of freight — whether that 
old mare could draw them. I never before saw, I never expect 
to see again, such a load of brains and of human freight, such a 
valuable load drawn by one horse, as I then saw disappear 
around the hill. 

I am not going to talk about Harry Bingham as a lawyer. 
You all know more about him as a lawyer than I do. Judge 
Jeremiah Smith told me this instance of Harry Bingham's great- 
ness. We were discussing it years ago. He said after he went 
off the bench and had got his health somewhat, he was employed 
in an admiralty case. It was new to him ; he hadn 't had much 
practice in that branch of the law. He went down to Boston 
and spent some time in the Social Library studying up the ques- 
tion. It was an important case; great interests were involved. 
He couldn't quite tell where he was going to land. He found 
that Harry Bingham was in Boston, searched him out, and went 
to see him. He said he could see as he laid the case open to 
Mr. Bingham that he hadn't ever considered the question, that 
is, not through books. After he had told him the case the Judge 
for fifteen or twenty minutes said not a word. By and by those 



BAR EULOGIES. 75 

eyes began to turn in their orbits as the soul began to think and 
light them up, and the brain began to move, reminding one of 
the heavenly bodies as they twinkle and flash and then shine out 
in an effulgence difficult to gaze upon. He began to talk, and 
step by step went on and laid out the case from the very founda^ 
tions, from his own inborn and acquired knowledge of the prin- 
ciples that govern not only the law but the universe. I believe 
Judge Smith finally won his case on the lines then discussed. 

The gentlemen here, Mr. Batchellor and Mr. Mitchell, I re- 
member were before me in a case thirty years ago at Franconia, 
with Judge Harry Bingham and Judge George A. Bingham, and 
they too know all about this man as a lawyer. 

I have always had great admiration and great respect for him, 
and I never came into his presence without feeling that I was in 
the presence of a great man, and if I had any hat on I wanted 
to remove it ; I wanted to make my bow to brains. I went down 
to see the Judge only three weeks before he died. The calm 
patience, the fortitude, the heroism, with which he sat there and 
gazed into the future commanded my attention and arrested my 
thought. There he was, afflicted but uncomplaining, without the 
tender hand of wife to bathe his brow, nor the velvet touch of 
daughter, nor the charming interest of son; yet he sat uncom- 
plaining, and every want seemed to be fulfilled by these good 
friends who attended him all the last years of his life, and when 
my Brother Batchellor suggested to him that he had better let 
him or someone come up and read a few words to him day by day, 
he replied, "No, Batch, you need not do it. A man in my sit- 
uation had better meditate and reflect." And such was Harry 
Bingham, and so he died. 

Bravely, heroically, honestly, manfully, he waited for him 
whose footfalls are noiseless, whose form is invisible, but whose 
coming to all is sure and certain. 

REPLY OF THE COURT. 

HON. ROBERT M. WALLACE, JUSTICE. 

Gentlemen of the Bar: 

The court receives the just and appropriate memorial of Mr, 
Bingham with the same appreciation of his character and life 



76 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

which are expressed therein, and with full concurrence in the 
sentiments of the eloquent and affectionate tributes of the bar 
to his memory. 

The time-honored custom of this bar in commemorating the 
worth and characteristics of deceased members seems especially 
appropriate where, as in this case, a great and distinguished 
member has gone. It is well for us all to pause in the midst of 
our various duties and contemplate his life and all that was 
grand and beautiful in his character, and pay a proper tribute 
to his memory. It is especially fitting that this tribute should 
be in this county, which was the main field of his professional 
efforts, and where he was best known and esteemed. 

The observance of this custom is of the greatest benefit; it 
brings afresh to our minds the excellent qualities and the strong 
points in the character of our deceased friend, and stimulates 
us to emulate them. When this custom ceases, and indifference 
is felt by the profession as to the lives and qualities of their 
noble predecessors, then may we confidently expect a decadence 
in the quality of the membership of the bar. 

Mr. Bingham was a remarkable man, as a citizen, lawyer, 
legislator and author. His personality gave him a commanding 
influence with the people of the state and attracted to him 
warm personal friends. He was a strong character, an inde- 
pendent thinker, with the ability and courage to forcibly express 
his views. He came of good old New England stock. He had 
the New England characteristics, uncompromising conscience, 
sincerity, independence, common sense and steadfastness of pur- 
pose. As a young man when he began the practice of his pro- 
fession in this county he was surrounded by and brought in con- 
tact with the strong and able lawyers for which the bar of Coos 
and Grafton has ever been noted. But against such antagonists 
he early brought himself to the highest rank in his profession. 
That position he maintained throughout all his professional ca- 
reer. He was engaged in most of the important cases in this part 
of the state for nearly half a century, besides having many im- 
portant cases elsewhere. He presented that rare combination of 
the great advocate and profound lawyer united in one person. 
His ability to grasp the few salient points of a case and his power 
of statement in plain, terse and vigorous English, made him a 



BAR EULOGIES. 77 

master of the art of marshalling facts and a most effective advo- 
cate in a jury trial. In the discussion of a legal question, his 
great power of analysis, and his directness of thought and speech 
illuminated and made plain the most complex and abstruse legal 
proposition. 

While in one view it is to be regretted that on account of po- 
litical reasons the state was prevented from availing itself of 
Mr. Bingham's services in other and wider fields where his com- 
manding ability would have been so serviceable, yet in another 
view this is not to be regretted, because by reason of this fact 
the state was able for many years to have his valuable services 
here at home in the state Legislature. There his incorruptible 
character and his ability have been of incalculable benefit, both 
in the kind of legislation he has been instrumental in enacting, 
and also in the kind of legislation whose enactment he has pre- 
vented. For this same reason, Mr. Bingham has been enabled 
to devote his life almost exclusively to his profession. It was 
largely through his profession and by means of it that he was 
able to render the greatest public service. As a legal practi- 
tioner he presented the highest type of his profession. 

He was thoroughly democratic in all his tastes. His ways of 
life were plain and simple. There was both a grandeur and a 
simplicity to his character that was very attractive. His towns- 
people loved and trusted him. He was an American citizen of 
the best type, able to fiU with credit the highest offices under 
our government, yet scrupulously careful to perform the 
humblest duties of a citizen. 

"Well may we mourn him, 
Well may we emulate his virtues." 

The resolutions wiU be entered upon the records of the court, 
agreeably to the request of the bar, and as a mark of respect to 
the memory of our deceased brother, this court will now adjourn. 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 



Harry Bingham's life work was the practice of law; honorable 
success at the bar and recognized superiority as a legal counselor 
his highest ambition, to the attainment of which he gave the best 
at his command in thought, in study and in effort. In his devo- 
tion to his profession, however, he never forgot the obligations 
of citizenship, nor neglected its duties, preeminent among which, 
to his mind, was loyal service of the Democratic party, in whose 
tenets he had been reared and whose principles he cherished and 
defended with all the fervor of a religious devotee. 

He was, therefore, naturally interested in the movement which 
resulted in the establishment of a Democratic newspaper in the 
town of Littleton, in the summer of 1852, by Francis A. East- 
man,* and, along with Col. Cyrus Eastmanf of that town and 

*Franeis A. Eastman was born in Littleton, April 3, 1833. He learned 
the printer's trade in the office of the Granite State Whig, at Lebanon, 
and started the Ammonoosuc Reporter in Littleton when nineteen years 
of age. Leaving Littleton in 1854 he was engaged for a time on the 
New Hampshire Patriot at Concord, serving meanwhile as an aide on 
the staff of Gov. Nathaniel B. Baker. Subsequently he became editor 
of the Yermont Patriot at Montpelier, but went West in 1857, and 
was for two years editor of the Daily News, Milwaukee, Wis. At the 
Instance of Stephen A. Douglas he removed in 1859 to Chicago and 
took a position as associate editor of the Chicago Times. Two years 
later he aided in establishing the Morning Post, a Democratic paper 
sustaining the administration in the prosecution of the war for the 
Union, which paper subsequently became the Inter-Ocean. Shortly 
after the opening of the war. Colonel Eastman became a Republican 
and was soon called into public life. He was for a time collector of 
the Northern District of Chicago; was for two years a member of the 
lower branch of the Legislature and four years a state senator He 
was a penitentiary commissioner, under the state government, and one 
of the builders of the gi-eat Joliet prison. He was the first man ap- 
pointed to office by President Grant, being named by him as postmaster 
of Chicago, which office he held four years. Suffering serious loss in 
the great Chicago fire, he returned to journalism and was for some 
years editor of the Press, at Utica, N. Y., removing thence, in 1886 to 
Los Angeles, Cal. 

tCyrus Eastman, born in Danville, Vt, November 15, 1814, settled in 
Littleton in 1836, and engaged in trade as a general merchant. He be- 
came a leading citizen and was prominent in public affairs, as a Demo- 



80 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Hon. John G. Sinclair of Bethlehem, promised the young pub- 
lisher such substantial support as might be required, to the extent 
of his ability, the contribution of matter for publication being 
one thing expected of Mr. Bingham. That this expectation was 
fairly met is apparent from consultation of the files of the paper, 
which was known as the Ammonoosuc Reporter, and its succes- 
sor, the White Mountain Banner, from the establishment of the 
former, in 1852, till the discontinuance of the latter, in 1859. 
Articles manifestly from his pen appeared occasionally in the 
form of communications and, not infrequently, as editorial, the 
language employed being at all times plain, positive, vigorous 
and direct, without any attempt at rhetorical embellishment, 
very much after the manner of his addresses to the jury, and 
leaving no doubt as to his meaning in any case. 

One of the first articles from his pen, commanding attention, 
was a communication appearing in the Reporter in December, 
1852, during the session of the Legislature, taking decided 
ground against a measure which had been introduced, authoriz- 
ing the union of certain railroad corporations and the guaran- 
teeing of railroad bonds by towns through whose territory their 
lines might pass. This was vigorously in line with the tradi- 
tional Democratic policy of hostility to the increase of corporate 
power and influence, and was given point and emphasis, un- 
doubtedly, by the financial distress that the building of the old 
Boston, Concord & Montreal, and the White Mountain road, 
then barely completed to Littleton, had brought to many citizens 
of that section of the state. The position was taken that individ- 
ual enterprise should be depended upon for all such improve- 
ments and neither towns nor the state should assume any part 
of the burden in carrying them forward. 

In the Reporter of February 26, 1853, just preceding the an- 
nual town and state election (the two coming together in those 
days), there appeared a long and earnest address to the Demo- 



crat. He was a member of the executive council in 1S59, a represen- 
tative from Littleton in the Legislature of 1871 and 1872, and a delegate 
to the Constitutional Convention of 1876. He also served as postmaster 
eight years, under the administration of Presidents Polk and Pierce. 
He was active in the old state militia, and was colonel of the Thirty- 
Second Regiment from 1844 till 1848. He died in Littleton, March 31, 
1896. 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 81 

cratie voters of Littleton, signed by Ebenezer Eastman,* chair- 
man of the Democratic town committee, but generally under- 
stood to have been mainly the work of Mr. Bingham, The im- 
portance of the impending election was set forth in vivid terms. 
It was characterized as a crisis in the history of the town, which, 
in all probability, would settle its political status for a long time 
to come. It was urged that no man in Littleton with a drop of 
Democratic blood in his veins could afford to be slumbering or 
indifferent at such a time. Reference was made to the brilliant 
success of the party in the presidential campaign, then but re- 
cently ended, whereby the gifted son of New Hampshire, Frank- 
lin Pierce, had been triumphantly elected to the highest office 
in the people 's gift, and it was asked : * * With such a bright ex- 
ample before our eyes, with these recollections so fresh in our 
memories, can we fail in doing our duty and our whole duty?" 
The history of the two great parties — Democratic and Whig — 
was tersely reviewed, from the days of Jefferson and Adams 
down to those of Pierce and Scott; the victories of Democracy 
set forth as national triumphs and the course of the opposition 
party as one of unrelenting hostility to the nation's best inter- 
ests, and to all measures calculated to promote the national pros- 
perity and to establish the national honor. All were urged to be 
on their guard against the tricks and devices of the enemy, to 
be misled by none of their specious arguments and false pre- 
tenses, to attend the caucus, nominate good and true men for 
office, and then stand solidly to the last man in their support. 
An ardent admirer and staunch supporter of Gen. Franklin 
Pierce, who had been elected president in 1852 by an overwhelm- 
ing majority, after a campaign characterized by unusual excite- 
ment, during which he had been greatly abused and vilified by 
the opposition press, Mr. Bingham believed it to be the duty of 
the party to sustain and defend the administration of its success- 
ful candidate, and he was found using his pen with vigor to 
that end. A strong, yet candid, editorial, in the Reporter of 



♦Ebenezer Eastman, an elder brother of Col. Cyrus Eastman, born in 
Danville, Vt, June 15, 1804, removed to Littleton in 1842, and went into 
partnership with his brother, in mercantile business. He was an esti- 
mable citizen and an active Democrat, serving his party faithfully and 
seeking no office, but was a delegate from Littleton in the Constitutional 
Convention of 1850. He died October 5, 1872. 



82 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

August 27, 1853, manifestly from such source, reviewed the 
progress of the administration up to that time, showing the re- 
sults to have been, so far, a complete fulfilment of the predictions 
of his enthusiastic supporters, in that he — President Pierce — 
had commanded the approbation of reasonable men of all parties 
for his dignified and statesmanlike bearing, as well as his orator- 
ical powers; his sagacity and tact in the work of composing 
factional and sectional differences in his party; his ardent pa- 
triotism and his thorough Americanism, as evidenced in his in- 
structions to those representing the United States at foreign 
capitals. This success, it was asserted, gratifying as it was, was 
no surprise to the Democrats of New Hampshire, who had known 
General Pierce long and well, and were entirely conversant with 
his character and abilities. 

Again, in November of the same year, Mr. Bingham found 
occasion, in another editorial, to apply a sharp "castigation" to 
the Hon. Edmund Burke* of Newport, who, in The Old Guard 



*Edmund Burke, born in Westminster, Vt, January 23, 1809, died in 
Newport, N. H., January 25, 1882. Mr. Burke studied law with Hon. 
William C. Bradley of Westminster, one of the most distinguished law- 
yers of Vermont, and commenced practice immediately after admission 
to the bar, at the age of 21 years, in the town of Colebrook in this state, 
but soon removed to Whitefield, where he continued in practice three 
years, removing to Claremont in the fall of 1833, where, in addition to 
legal practice, he assumed the editorship of a new Democratic paper, the 
Argus, just established. A year later he removed with the paper to 
Newport, where, soon after, the Spectator, then published there, was 
united with it, under his editorial direction, which continued for several 
years, his editorial work commanding wide recognition for its ability. 
In March, 1839, he was elected a member of the National House of 
Representatives for the 26th Congress, and was twice reelected, serving 
with great distinction, and making a record for ability surpassed by that 
of no man from the state in that body. Subsequently he served four 
years as Commissioner of Patents, under the administration of James 
K. Polk, and was for a year following an associate editor of the Wash- 
ington Union, then the leading Democratic newspaper of the country. 
Returning to New Hampshire he resumed his profession; but was 
largely engaged in patent law practice, being associated with Boston 
and New York firms. He was a delegate from New Hampshire to the 
National Democratic Convention in Baltimore, in 1844, which nomi- 
nated James K. Polk for the presidency, and to that in the same city, 
in 1852, which named Gen. Franklin Pierce for the same position. To 
the wide acquaintance and powerful influence of Mr. Burke with lead- 
ing Democrats, particularly from the South, and to his quiet and judi- 
cious work while his colleagues of the New Hampshire delegation were 
doing the "shouting," the nomination of General Pierce was actually 
due. Indeed, as a matter of fact, Mr. Burke himself might have had the 
Southern support, and was urged to allow the use of his name, but 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 83 

newspaper was violently assailing the administration and some 
of its supporters in this state, whom he was wont to character- 
ize as the * * Concord Ring. ' ' 

In the issue of the Reporter for the first week in March, 1854, 
an election being then again pending, he appealed earnestly to 
the voters to rally to the support of President Pierce by aiding 
in the choice of a Legislature which should elect two Democrats 
to the United States Senate, particular stress being laid upon 
the necessity of "adhering to the settled usages and abiding by 
the nominations of the party. ' ' 

During the year 1854, and the winter following, there was 
considerable excitement in political circles in the state. The old 
Whig party was on the point of disintegration and the American, 
or ''Know Nothing" party, as it was generally called, which, in 
1856, took the name of ''Republican," was in process of organi- 
zation, and came to the front with a full ticket for the people's 
suffrages at the March election in 1855, the same being headed 

peremptorily refused, insisting upon General Pierce's nomination Yet a 
cotene of ambitious men in tlie Democratic party in the state who 
were "close-' to General Pierce, thinking it to be to their own advanSge 
to discredit Mr Burke in his estimation, succeeded in making hiS 
believe that he had been unfaithful to his interests and had really con- 
spired to accomplish his defeat. He therefore turned the cold shouMer 
upon his former friend, and the man of all others who had made h!s 
nomination possible, and refused him any recognition or consMerltion 

?. ?h' T' "'f-fT- ^"^ " '^''^^ «^ ^^- ^'''^''' Pro^d and sensi?f4 natiiS 
such ngratitude was unpardonable. It made him a sharp critic of 
the Pierce administration, and finally impelled him to parUc^paS ?n 
the Know Nothing" movement which overturned the Democratic plry 
in the state. He was too firmly grounded in Democratic princ?Dles 
however, to continue long "outside the fold." and upon the retirement 
of General Pierce from the presidency he renewed his old time allegSnce 

the PreSncvtl8fio"'??''i°^ Breckenridge rather than Douglls fSr 
tne Presidency in 1860. He became mtimate with Mr. Bingham during 
the candidacy of the latter for Congress in 1867, and a sfrong friend 
ship grew up between them, which was still more closely cemfnted by 
their association as counsel in important railroad litigatSS^^n later 
years, when they were employed by the late John H Pearson in Ms 
famous Concord railroad controversy. Although an able lawyer a 
statesman of broad views and a student in many fields of research kr 
Burke's chief distinction was for his ability as a polit?ca[ wri er ' ^d 
his series of essays on the tariff, over the signature of "bS eJ^nd " 
appearing in the Washington Union, and subsequently republished in 
pamphlet form and widely circulated, constitute the cfearest and mos^ 
exhaustive exposure of the fallacies of the prot«:tive systeS as vieTed 
from the Democratic standpoint, that has ever appeared i^' print Ind 
did more to determine and establish the tariff poHcy of the Democratic 
party, than was ever done by the pen or voice of any other man 



34 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

by Ralph Metcalf* for governor and James Pike,t Mason W. 
Tappant and Aaron H. Cragin§ for members of Congress from 
the three districts then existing. The Reporter took part in 
the controversies incident to the campaign, and Mr, Bingham 
contributed some sharp articles to its columns, scoring the plat- 
form and candidates of the new party in vigorous terms, and 
particularly contrasting the respective merits and qualifications 
of the rival candidates for Congress in the Third District — 

*Ralph Metcalf, born in Charlestown, November 21, 1798, graduated 
at Dartmouth College in the class of 1823. He studied law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1826. He practised two years in Newport and 
two years in Binghamton, N. Y. Returning to this state he located in 
Claremont but was soon chosen secretary of state, holding the office 
from 1831 to 1838. He was a clerk in the Treasury Department at 
Washington from 1838 to 1840, when he resigned and returned to New 
Hampshire, engaging in legal practice at Plymouth, but soon removed to 
Newport, where he continued through life. He was register of probate 
for Sullivan County from 1845 to 1851, and chairman of the commission 
appointed to revise the statutes of the state in 1852. He served in the 
Legislature in 1852-53, and in 1855 received the nomination of the 
Know-Nothing or American party for Governor, after the death of Rev, 
John Moore of Concord, who had been first named. He was elected and 
reelected by the Legislature the following year, there being no choice by 
the people. He died August 26, 1858. 

tJames Pike, born in Salisbury, Mass., November 10, 1818, died in 
Newfields, N. H., July 27, 1895. He was a Methodist preacher long 
prominent in the New Hampshire conference, having been ordained 
a deacon at Claremont in 1845. He was made presiding elder of the 
Dover District in 1853, and in 1855 was elected to Congress, serving 
four years. He commanded the Sixteenth New Hampshire Regiment in 
the Civil War, and at its close returned to the ministry, serving as pre- 
siding elder in all the New Hampshire districts, and as pastor at 

$Mason W. Tappan, born in Newport, October 20, 1817, died at Brad- 
ford, October 24, 1886. He was educated at Hopkinton and Kimball 
Union Academies, studied law with Judge George W. Nesmith at Frank- 
lin, and commenced practice at Bradford in 1841, where he resided till 
death. He was an ardent Free Soiler in politics. He represented Brad- 
ford in the Legislature in 1853-55, and in the latter year was elected to 
Congress by the Kiiow-Nothing or American, subsequently the Repub- 
lican, party, continuing six years. He commanded the First New Hamp- 
shire Volunteers in the Civil War and was attorney-general of New 
Hampshire from 1876 till his death. Dartmouth College gave him the 
honorary degree of A. M, in 1860. 

§Aaron H. Cragin, born in Weston, Vt, February 3, 1821, died at 
Washington, D. C, May 10, 1888. He received a common school educa- 
tion; studied law, was admitted to the bar in Albany, N. Y., in 1847 and 
immediately located in practice at Lebanon. He represented the town in 
the Legislature from 1852 to 1855, when he was elected to Congress, 
serving four years. He was a delegate in the Republican Convention at 
Chicago in 1860. He was a United States senator from New Hampshire 
two terms, from 1865 to 1877, serving as chairman of the committee 
on naval affairs the last term. 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 85 

Mr. Cragin and William P. Wheeler* of Keene, the Democratic 
nominee. 

The election resulted in the complete triumph of the "Know 
Nothing," or American party, so called, its candidates for Gov- 
ernor and members of Congress, as well as a majority in both 
branches of the Legislature, being elected. When the Legis- 
lature assembled a sweeping overturn was effected in all depart- 
ments of the government. John L. Hadleyt was succeeded as 
secretary of state by Lemuel N. Pattee,$ and Walter Harriman,§ 

♦William P. Wheeler, bom in Croydon, July 31, 1812, died in Keene 
in 1876. He was educated at the academies in Newport and Meriden, 
studied law with Phineas Handerson of Keene and at the Harvard 
Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and commenced practice 
in Keene, where he continued through life, being for many years 
associated with Francis A. Faulkner. He was a brilliant advocate, and 
pronounced by Judge Jeremiah Smith the best cross-examiner he ever 
heard. He was solicitor for Cheshire County for ten years, from 1845, 
and the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Third District in 
1855 and 1857. Dartmouth College conferred on him the honorary 
degree of A. M. in 1852, and LL. D. in 1872. 

tJohn Langdon Hadley, born in Weare, February 19, 1810, died in 
that town January 17, 1892, He represented his town in the Legisla- 
ture in 1834-'38 and in 1846-48, having meanwhile served four 
years as register of deeds for Hillsborough County. He was a member 
of the executive council in 1849 and 1850, and in the latter year was 
chosen secretary of state, serving till 1855. 

JLemuel Noyes Pattee was a native of Massachusetts, born February 
5, 1804, but removed with his parents to Goffstown in this state in 
early childhood. He was register of probate for Hillsborough County 
from 1842 till 1852, residing in Amherst, which town he represented 
one year in the Legislature. In 1852 he removed to Antrim, and was 
also a representative from that town. He was secretary of state from 
1855 to 1858, returning then to Goffstown, where he died April 1, 1870. 

§Walter Harriman, born in Warner, April 8, 1817, died in Concord, 
July 25, 1884. He received an academical education, taught school, and 
entered the Universalist ministry, preaching from 1841 to 1851, at 
Harvard, Mass., and Warner. He represented Warner in the Legisla- 
ture, as a Democrat, from 1849 to 1851. In the latter year he engaged 
in mercantile business at Sutton with John S. Pillsbury, subsequently 
governor of Minnesota. From 1853 to 1855 he was state treasurer, 
being removed in the latter year by the Know-Nothings of which or- 
ganization he had been one of the most determined opponents. He 
subsequently served for a time as examiner of claims in the pension 
office at Washington, and as a commissioner to appraise Indian lands. 
He was a noted Democratic campaign speaker and stumped Michigan 
for Buchanan in 1856, with Gen. Lewis Cass. He served in the State 
Legislature in 1858, and in the State Senate in 1859-'60. In 1861 he 
became editor of the Manchester Union in which he sustained the war 
policy of President Lincoln. He commanded the Eleventh New Hamp- 
shire Regiment in the Civil War, and led a brigade in the assault on 
Petersburg, April 21, 1865. He was discharged as brevet brigadier-gen- 
eral June 10, 1865. He was voted for as their candidate for Governor, by 



86 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

as treasurer, by William Berry.* Nearly every man in the state, 
holding office by executive appointment, was removed upon 
legislative address, and the places thus left vacant were filled by 
adherents of the new party. Even the chief justice of the 
Supreme Court of the state, Hon. Andrew S. Woodsf of Bath, 
was gotten rid of by the ingenious process of ''reorganizing the 
judiciary" or the abolition of the court and the creation of a 
new one with the same powers and duties but a somewhat dif- 
ferent name — the "Supreme Court of Judicature" making way 
for the "Supreme Judicial Court," and Ira PerleyJ of Concord 
being installed in the office of chief justice, while Judge Woods 
was relegated to the seclusion of private life. 

Judge Woods was a man of great ability, a sound lawyer, 
whose decisions ranked high in this and other states. For him 
Mr. Bingham entertained the highest regard and in the White 
Mountain Banner of July 28 (which paper, published by Van 
Ness Bass,§ succeeded the Ammonoosuc Reporter) appears an 



the "War Democrats" in 1863. Having become a Republican he was 
chosen secretary of state in 1865, serving till 1867, when he became 
Governor. From 1869 to 1877 he was naval officer at Boston. Estab- 
lishing his residence in Concord he served in the Legislature again in 
1881. He was the author of a history of Warner, and received the 
honorary degree of Master of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1868. 

♦William Berry, a son of John and Hannah (Garland) Berry, was a 
native and resident of Barnstead, born November 18, 1799. He was a 
merchant and farmer, held various town offices, and was deputy warden 
of the New Hampshire state prison, under Hon. Samuel Berry, from 
1843 to 1848. He was elected state treasurer in June, 1855, and held 
the office until his death from a fall, upon the steps of the state house, 
January 23, 1857. 

tAndrew Salter Woods, born in Bath, June 2, 1803, died there June 
20, 1863. He was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1826, studied 
law with Ira Goodall of Bath, and was his partner in practice for twelve 
years. In 1840 he was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court, 
serving till 1855, when he was made chief justice, but soon removed 
through the reorganization of the court by the Legislature for partisan 
reasons. He was given the degree of LL. D. by Dartmouth in 1852. 

$Ira Perley was born in Boxford, Mass., November 9, 1799. He was 
graduated at Dartmouth in 1822; was admitted to the bar in 1827 and 
located in practice at Hanover where he was also treasurer of the 
college. He was twice elected to the Legislature from Hanover and 
gained high rank at the bar. He removed to Concord in 1836. He 
was an associate justice of the Superior Court from 1850 till 1852, and 
chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court from 1855 till 1859, when 
he resigned. In 1864 he was again appointed to the same position, 
serving till seventy years of age, in 1869. He died February 26, 1874, 
He was honored with the degree of LL. D. by Dartmouth in 1852. 

§Van Ness Bass, born in Lyman, July 14, 1830, died at Plymouth, 
April 29, 1907. He attended the academies at Bath and at Newbury, 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 87 

article which he wrote, severely arraigning the Legislature for 
its action in thus prostituting the judiciary of the state, with a 
view to making the court or judges subservient to partisan ends, 
and speaking in the highest terms of the deposed chief justice, 
whose eminent ability, fairness and independence had never 
been successfully questioned. 

During the presidential campaign of 1856 and the months 
preceding Mr. Bingham was a frequent contributor to the edi- 
torial columns of the Banner. In the issue of March 22 of that 
year one of his articles reviewed the outlook and expressed con- 
fidence that conditions would be so shaped as to insure Demo- 
cratic success. The situation in New York was pronounced 
hopeful, and the opinion expressed that the Know Nothing de- 
lusion had about run its race, and that "the days of this un- 
righteous combination against civil and religious liberty are 
already numbered"; while the Republican party, which was be- 
ing evolved to take its place, was ' ' a conglomeration of odds and 
ends, — the refuse of all parties — bound together by no ties 
but common love of spoils and plunder. ' ' 

In the issue of April 5, following, Mr. Bingham pays a grace- 
ful tribute to Hon. James M. Rix,* editor of the Cods Democrat, 
who had died in Boston on the 25th ult., on his way to the South, 

In the number for May 17 is an article under the caption 
"Program of the Opposition," in which the purpose of the 
anti-Democratic forces in the states, as diagnosed by Mr. Bing- 



Vt., and learned the printer's trade in the office of The Sph-it of the 
Age at Woodstock, Vt. He published the Observer for a time at St. 
Clair, Mich., before coming to Littleton where he continued business 
as a job printer several years after the discontinuance of the Banner 
in 1859, later removing to Plymouth, where he was in the printing 
business many years, and published the Grafton County Democrat 
from 1878 to 1883. 

*James M. Rix, bora in Landaff, N. H., December, 23, 1811, died in 
Boston, Mass., March 25, 1856. He was a printer by occupation, having 
learned the trade in the office of the Democratic Republican at Haver- 
hill, and the New Hampshire Patriot at Concord, and went to Lancaster 
to conduct the Cods County Democrat, then about being started, in July, 
1838. He made a spicy and vigorous paper, and soon became prominent 
in political life. He was clerk of the court for Coos County from 1839 
till the time of his death, and also served as bank commissioner from 
1843 to 1846 and from 1848 to 1855. In 1847 and again in 1848 he 
represented Lancaster in the State Legislature; in 1852 and 1853 he 
was state senator, being president of the Senate in the latter year, and 
had been elected a member of the New Hampshire delegation in the 
Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati in 1856. 



88 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ham, is succinctly set forth, the inference being drawn from the 
action of a council of the leaders, which had been held at' 
Plymouth shortly before, at which Millard Fillmore, who had al- 
ready been nominated for president by the national American 
party, was repudiated as a candidate. The reason which Mr. 
Bingham adduced for this action was that Mr. Fillmore's en- 
dorsement of the compromise measures of 1850 had offended the 
abolition or anti-slavery element of the state, upon which the 
opposition to the Democracy proposed to rely for success, having 
''sacrificed everything else, even their animosity to the Pope and 
the Irish to give greater unity and distinctness to their 
crusade against the South." He welcomed the issue and as- 
serted that it would be found that the advantage was not alto- 
gether one-sided, as it had been before, since ' ' it will now be seen 
that those who whine most piteously over the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise are those who never acknowledged its binding 
force." "It will be seen also," he said, "that all the practical 
difficulties attending the operation of the Kansas bill are plainly 
to be attributed to the cowardly yet factious and treasonable 
conduct of Reeder and his compeers; and more than this, many 
of our New England men are contesting the palm with the Mis- 
sourians for the eminent glory of being the greatest 'ruffians'." 

In the Banner issued under date of June 14 appeared a strong 
editorial endorsement by Mr. Bingham of the Democratic nom- 
inee for president, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, who had 
been named by the National Convention at Cincinnati shortly be- 
fore. He was characterized as " a strong, conservative, practical 
statesman," whose "long services in the United States Senate, 
and in responsible positions abroad, have given him an invalu- 
able experience, while his consistent and statesmanlike course 
upon the great questions which have agitated the country since 
the time of Jefferson, has secured him the respect, confidence 
and esteem of the nation." 

In a subsequent issue, just before the November election, Mr. 
Bingham discussed the comparative claims and qualifications of 
all the candidates, including Fremont and Fillmore, and called 
upon voting readers to consider well their relative merits, then 
reflect, candidly and honestly, and say, by their votes, who is 
the man to guide our destinies for the next four years. "If 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 89 

you do this," he wrote, "we have no hesitancy in saying you 
will pronounce that man to be James Buchanan." He con- 
cluded ; ' * We believe the people have already come to this con- 
clusion, and we are happy in a belief that in such an event the 
principles of the government are not to be changed from those 
under which we have so long lived and prospered as a people. 
The Constitution will be protected and the union of these states 
preserved, and our government handed down to posterity as 
the richest legacy that can fall to the lot of man. ' ' 

Mr. Bingham was right in his prediction as to the immediate 
outcome, but as to the actual effect which that outcome had re- 
garding the protection of the Constitution and the preservation 
of the Union, it is a question upon which patriotic citizens have 
honestly and widely differed and will doubtless continue to so 
differ for years to come. 

Naturally enough, in an issue of the Banner, after the result 
of the election was known, under date of November 22, Mr. 
Bingham gave expression to sentiments of rejoicing, pronouncing 
it * ' the greatest triumph that has been gained by the Democracy 
since the election of Thomas Jefferson." *'It was a struggle," 
said he, "between a sectional party, thrown together from all 
the isms and factions that disappointment could conceive or 
hatred could engender, and the old national Democracy which, 
under Providence, has coexisted with and is the Union, with all 
its pride and glory, and which has again proved itself equal to 
any emergency that may threaten or endanger the nation. 
Nobly have the Democracy and their glorious allies fought ; nobly 
has an unparallelled victory been won, James Buchanan will 
continue to keep the good old Ship of State upon the right course. 
He, like his predecessor in the presidential chair, will know no 
north, no south, no east, no west, but our country 'one and indi- 
visible. ' The Constitution is safe ; the Union is preserved. ' ' 

In another issue, a few weeks later, he made reference to the 
outcome of the election in the State of Illinois, the home of Sena- 
tor Stephen A. Douglas, which gave its vote for Buchanan, and 
which result he characterized as "the crowning triumph of the 
great and glorious victory." The "little giant of the West" was 
lauded as having come out of the contest unscathed, though he 
had been shamelessly vilified and his motives impugned by 



90 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

men who never knew there was such a thing as political honesty ; 
while "the three thousand clergymen who supposed they pos- 
sessed the power to crush him out have learned by a demonstra- 
tion how feeble they are when they step aside from their legiti- 
mate calling." 

While Mr. Bingham's contributions to the press were mainly 
of a political nature, and these indulged in largely as a diversion 
from legal work and study, though at the same time dictated by 
a sense of duty, it by no means follows that his mind never 
turned in other directions. His mental versatility and many- 
sided nature, were fully recognized by those who knew him best. 
A suggestion thereof, at least, is furnished in an editorial con- 
tribution to the Banner of April 18, 1857, in which he welcomed 
the spring, giving utterance to thought and sentiments present- 
ing the author in a different light from that in which he was 
ordinarily seen. In this article he said : 

We cordially welcome the spring. Her very name awakens 
the glow of pleasurable emotions in the heart, and we believe, 
with Tennyson, that her reign is the happiest time of all the 
glad new year. Genial sunlight and bland breezes heralded her 
advent, and, though her smile is sometimes lost in gathering 
clouds, we know that she will bring beauty and freshness to the 
earth. Once more the silvery gleam of lake and river will meet 
the eye, and the noisy mountain brook will go singing on its way 
like a happy child. The sleeping germs, folded in myriads of 
buds, will awaken into life; grass will spring up w^here all is 
now dark and dreary ; trees and shrubs clothe themselves in the 
delicate garniture of their young leaves, and the violet and snow- 
drop open their starry eyes. The passage birds will wing their 
flight back to their forest homes, and their songs will mingle 
with the murmur of the stream and the drowsy hum of the bee. 

But spring not only brings loveliness to nature, she is richly 
freighted with human hopes. How many invalids have been 
absolutely yearning for this season! How the pallid cheek 
glows ; how the languid eye brightens ; how the pulse bounds at 
the thought of gentle winds and the breath of early flowers! 

How many wanderers on the distant seas or in foreign lands 
are looking forward to spring at this time, when they shall come 
back to their home and the hearts so anxiously awaiting their 
return! How many fondly believe that this season will be a 
sunny spot in their existence, a joyful crisis in their destiny ! 

Aye, spring has a priceless wealth of hope, but she has her 
memories, too — some that it will be sweet to recall and others of 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 91 

which we cannot think without deep regret or profound sor- 
row. There are those who will find delight in reverting to some 
springtime in the past when they first chose the path which led 
them to their present wealth, distinction or peaceful happiness, 
and to such no season will be so pleasant as this. But there are 
many of whom every soft gale and every blossoming flower will 
bring a reminiscence of the dead. 

Let us glance around us among the circle of our acquaintances. 
Where are those who, a twelve-month ago, rejoiced at the ap- 
proach of this season ? Some, it is true, are with us still ; others 
are far away, and others sleep that dreamless slumber from 
which there is no awakening till the resurrection morn. Alas, 
the cypress is enwoven with the unfolding flowers; in the glad 
p(ea7i which ascends to heaven there are dirge-like tones. 

Who may tell how heavily the gloom of affliction has settled 
on the broken household band? Who may tell how deep and 
poignant is their grief ? Still they have consolation in their be- 
reavement. They mourn not as those who have no hope. The 
_ departed sleep in the cold embrace of death ; but we believe that, 
like the flowers that now awaken into new bloom, their spirits 
will arise in everlasting love, on the morn of a brighter day, at 
the dawning of a more glorious spring. 

A striking illustration of the bitterness of the partisan spirit 
then prevailing in the state, and the disposition in the Demo- 
cratic party to regard the prohibitory liquor law, then generally 
known as "the Maine law," which had been enacted by the pre- 
vious legislature, as having been advocated and passed with a 
view to partisan advantage merely and without any sincere 
regard for the public welfare, is afforded in an editorial from 
Mr. Bingham's pen in the Banner of June 27, 1857, in which he 
first pays his respects to the legislative supporters of Hon. 
Daniel Clark, * who had just been chosen to the United States 

♦Daniel Clark, born in Stratham, October 24, 1809, died in Man- 
chester, January 2, 1891. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1834, was 
admitted to the bar in 1837, when he commenced practice in Epping, 
removing to Manchester two years later, where he continued and at- 
tained distinction. It was in a warmly contested case, in which he had 
Mr. Clark as his antagonist, in the Hillsborough County Court, that 
Mr. Bingham's abilities first came into notice in southern New Hamp- 
shire. Mr. Clark served in the Legislature in 1842, 1843, 1846, 1854 and 

1855. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 

1856, and was also a Republican presidential elector that year. He was 
chosen to the United States Senate in 1857, to fill the vacancy oc- 
casioned by the death of James Bell, and reelected in 1860 for six years 
from March 4, following. He resigned in July, 1866, to accept the office 
of United States District Judge for New Hampshire, which he held till 
his death. He was president of the Constitutional Convention of 1876. 



92 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Senate, and whose nomination in the legislative caucus was 
alleged to have been followed by a drunken carousal on the 
part of his supporters. Following his sharp comments on this 
affair, he went on to arraign the men who were active in the 
passage of the Maine law for their hypocrisy, alleging that after 
its enactment "many of them immediately repaired to a drink- 
ing saloon, where they drank ' a health to the Maine law ' in good 
stout Cognac brandy." Pursuing the subject he went on to say: 
"We know and can prove that at the time Ralph Metcalf as- 
serted in his message that he 'knew of no place in New Hamp- 
shire where spirituous liquors were illegally sold,' that in his 
own town there were three such places, and that in the city of 
Manchester they were counted by fifties, where it was as openly 
sold as were English or domestic goods ; that the same was true 
of Dover, Nashua, Portsmouth, and, to a greater or less extent, 
it was thus sold in almost every town in the state. ' ' 

In an article appearing in November following we find Mr. 
Bingham replying in kind to a bitter and violent attack upon 
the Democracy, appearing in the columns of the New Hampshire 
Statesman; while a month later he assailed the dominant party 
in the state for its reckless extravagance in piling up a state 
debt of $120,000 during the two years and a half of its control, 
the total indebtedness when it assumed power being but 
$38,000, the attention of the people being diverted from its 
recklessness in this regard by the sympathetic outcry in behalf 
of "Bleeding Kansas." 

In the Banner of March 6, 1858, he presented a ringing ap- 
peal to the voters of Grafton County to rally to the Democratic 
standard, borne by the true and tried candidates of the party at 
whoe head was Col. Asa P. Cate,* the nominee for governor, 
"whose fidelity to the great principles of our fathers is as firm 



*Asa P. Cate was born in Sanbornton, now Tilton, June 1, 1813. He 
was educated at the academies in Boscawen and Sanbornton Bridge 
(now Tilton), read law with Judge Nesmith at Franklin and located 
in practice at Northfield where he continued. He was moderator at 
every town election from 1838 till 1874 with two exceptions, represented 
the town in the Legislature in 1839 and 1840, and in 1864-66. He was 
also a state senator in 1844 and 1845 and president of the Senate the 
latter year. He was solicitor for Merrimack County from 1845 to 1851, 
railroad commissioner from 1849 to 1852, judge of probate from 1871 
to 1874. He was the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1859 and 
1860. He died December 12, 1874. 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 93 

and steadfast as our own granite hills; whose regard for the 
highest interests of the masses is beyond the questioning of any 
man, and whose liberal support of the institutions of learning 
is known to all." The unparalleled extravagance and unful- 
filled promises of the Republican party were dwelt upon, as 
well as its disregard and absolute violation of the constitution, 
and Democrats urged to rally in their strength and drive it 
from power. Following the election in which the Republicans 
triumphed in the town of Littleton as well as the state, came 
another article in which he administered a stinging rebuke to 
traitors to the Democratic cause in the town who had sold their 
votes for money. "Have these poor deluded men," he asked, 
"taken a sober second thought on this subject? Do they con- 
sider that any man who will sell his vote would also barter the 
liberty of a son, or the virtue of his wife or daughter ? " As for 
the Republican victory, he characterized it as having been "won 
by a course of fraud which in the annals of our town has no 
precedent. ' ' 

Just preceding the election of 1859, in the issue of March 5, 
Mr. Bingham again appealed to the voters of Littleton, in behalf 
of the Democratic cause, calling attention to the corruption that 
had been practiced the year previous, and especially urging the 
poor and needy voters to resist the temptation which might be 
presented, and remain honest, straight-forward citizens con- 
scious of their own rectitude and independence. The outcome 
of the election, this time, was a Democratic triumph in the town, 
and the next published article from his pen was one appearing in 
the Banner, a week later, congratulating the Democracy of the 
town upon the sweeping victory which had been won in securing 
a handsome majority for every man on the Democratic ticket, 
although the most desperate measures had been resorted to by 
their opponents. This was the last published newspaper article 
from Mr. Bingham's pen, appearing for many years, as the pub- 
lication of the Banner was soon after suspended, and its sub- 
scription list transferred to the New Hampshire Patriot at Con- 
cord, and no Democratic paper was again published in town 
until the establishment of the White Mountain Republic by 
Chester E. Carey* and Henry H. Metcalf in October, 1867. Nor 



*Cliester E. Carey was a native of the town of Lempster, born March 
11, 1840. He learned the printer's trade in the office of the Termont 



94 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

did he then return to his custom of frequent contribution, the 
demands of his profession having become more pressing than 
formerly, or the exigencies of the political situation less so. He 
made one contribution to the Republic, however, which was 
specially notable, the same occupying about two full pages of 
space in the paper. It appeared in the issue of December 3, 
1869, and was subsequently published in pamphlet form, being 
entitled "The Great Black Republican Bear Fight in New 
Hampshire." It was a caustic review of the sharp and bitter 
controversy between William E. Chandler and the late Hon. 
George G. Fogg,* growing out of personal differences between 
these men and specially characterized by an attempt on the 
part of Mr. Chandler to involve the late Hon. John G. Sinclair in 
an alleged conspiracy with Mr. Fogg to bring about the nomina- 
tion of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase for the presidency by the 
Democratic National Convention in 1868, and demonstrated the 
injustice of the charge. It was widely circulated and read with 
much interest in all parts of the state. 

Two other articles from Mr. Bingham's pen, published in 
later years, commanded no little attention in political circles. 
These were one appearing in the Manchester Union of February 
14, 1883, entitled, "The Present State of Public Sentiment 
Towards the Relations of the States and the Federal Govern- 
ment," and dealing with the growing tendency toward the cen- 
tralization of government; and one on "The Issues at Stake 



Union, at Lyndon, and engaged in business in Littleton, as publislier 
of the White Mountain Republic in 1867, selling the paper to H. H. 
Metcalf in the fall of 1871. He was subsequently employed in various 
printing establishments, and finally located in Hanover, where he was 
engaged as a printer for several years previous to his death, Sep- 
tember 25, 1896. 

♦George Oilman Fogg, born in Meredith, May 26, 1813, died in Con- 
cord, October 5, 1881. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1839, read 
law and located in practice at Gilmanton. He was a representative in 
the Legislature in 1846, and was chosen secretary of state, serving two 
years. He was a delegate in the National Free Soil Convention in 
1848, and in the Republican Convention of 1856 and 1860. He edited 
the Independent Democrat at Concord from 1854 to 1861 and from 1865 
to 1871. He was secretary of the Republican National Committee from 
1856 to 1864. He served as United States minister to Switzerland from 
1861 to 1865, and as a senator from New Hampshire by appointment, suc- 
ceeding Daniel Clark, in 1866-'67. In 1874 he received the honorary 
degree of LL. D. from Bates College, to which institution he gave 
$15,000 by his will. 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 95 

in the Present Campaign" appearing in the Riverside Magazine 
for October, 1890, presenting the subject from a Democratic 
standpoint and appearing contemporaneously with one by Hon. 
William E. Chandler from a Republican point of view. The 
two articles in question are presented in full in the following 
pages : 

The Present State op Public Sentiment Towards the Rela- 
tions OP THE States and the Federal Government. 

(From the Manchester Daily Union, February 14, 1883.) 
The party prejudice is not particularly rampant at the present 
time, and the opportunity is not unfavorable for an impartial 
consideration of the situation as it really is. Our country can 
justly boast of advantages and prospects of which no other coun- 
try on the earth can boast. Wealth and population are rapidly 
increasing, and liberty protected by law is secure. Untiring in- 
dustry and indomitable enterprise are making apparent the in- 
exhaustible resources of our almost boundless territory. It is 
plain that, with its present development continued, the time is 
not far distant when our country will outstrip all the nations of 
the world that are or have been, not only in wealth and popula- 
tion, but in all the great achievements of civilization. This pres- 
ent development is the product of our free institutions, and will 
continue while those free institutions last. Every intelligent 
American citizen will admit that all his hopes of a glorious future 
for his country are inseparably linked with the idea that our ex- 
isting free institutions are to be preserved and perpetuated. 
Everybody who speculates in regard to the prospective greatness 
of our people assumes that civil liberty is to be enjoyed in the fu- 
ture as it has been in the past — that all the inhabitants of the 
land are to be free to engage in the pursuit of happiness, unre- 
strained save only by the law that they must not trespass on their 
neighbor. Nobody can see a future for America, if civil liberty 
be lost, other than a black and hopeless one. Citizens of all par- 
ties, of every station in life, and of every grade of intelligence, 
would undoubtedly agree to the sentiment that "our institutions 
must be preserved. ' ' 

It is worth while, therefore, to inquire, to study and to know 



96 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

how civil liberty was acquired, how, hitherto, it has been main- 
tained, and what security there is for its future enjoyment. Our 
colonial ancestors had the idea of self-government, and they 
planted colonies, and organized governments for those colonies 
based upon that idea. Each colony governed itself and main- 
tained substantial freedom within its limits until the revolt from 
Great Britain, and then each colony became an independent state, 
with all its own peculiar institutions. Each state was born an in- 
dependent republic, with free institutions firmly established, and 
with a people habituated to self-government. All the different 
states were alike determined upon the maintenance of their sep- 
arate independent governments, each for itself, and they did not 
consent to the adoption of the Federal Constitution until experi- 
ence had demonstrated that there were certain matters which the 
states, acting in their individual capacity, could not properly 
manage. By the adoption of the Federal Constitution a govern- 
ment was created, to which was delegated certain powers, few in 
number, and particularly specified, while all other powers were 
reserved to the states or the people. The condition of the states 
was unchanged by the adoption of the Federal Constitution, ex- 
cept so far as it was effected by the loss of the powers delegated 
to the general government. In all other respects the states re- 
mained as they were left by the Declaration of Independence, 
free and independent states. 

The coordinate operation of the state and federal governments 
has now carried us through the wear and tear of almost a cen- 
tury of time, and through the terrible strain of a tremendous 
Civil War, and we are still left in possession of civil liberty. The 
states are still left in possession of sovereignty as it respects lo- 
cal and domestic matters, while the supremacy of the federal gov- 
ernment is still limited to matters pertaining to the general wel- 
fare of all the states. The division of the powers of sovereignty 
between the federal and state governments at the termination of 
the colonial period was a necessity. To provide for all the com- 
mon defense, and for certain other matters pertaining to the gen- 
eral welfare of all the states necessitated the Union and the cre- 
ation of the federal government, with powers supreme within the 
prescribed boundaries of its jurisdiction; while the existence of 
the states with diverse institutions and interests, and with pop- 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 97 

ulations diverse in origin and manners, but well trained in local 
self-government, and thoroughly resolved upon its maintenance, 
made it necessary to leave the state organizations untouched, and 
with full control over all local and domestic matters. Thus the 
union of sovereign states under the Federal Constitution was the 
necessary outcome of the situation. The expansion of the colo- 
nies, when separated from the mother country, into independent 
states and a federal Union was a natural and inevitable expan- 
sion; and the divided sovereignty, thereby created, is, and has 
been, the palladium of our civil liberties and the assurance of the 
brilliant future which we anticipate. 

The states and federal government are mutual checks upon 
each other and mutual guarantors for each other. So long as 
either discharges its appropriate duties within its legitimate 
sphere, just so long will the other be sure to perform its peculiar 
duties, and to limit its action to such performance. The destruc- 
tion of either would be the annihilation of our governmental fab- 
ric, just as completely as the destruction of either the planets or 
the sun would be the annihilation of the solar system. Experi- 
ence has shown that the federal government is strong enough to 
enforce its legitimate authority, and that the attachment of the 
people to local self-government is strong enough to maintain 
the states respectively in the control of local and domestic mat- 
ters. The average citizen always has a realizing sense that state 
authority is present to protect and to restrain him. The pres- 
ence of federal authority is not so obvious to him. He ordinarily 
sees rights established, wrongs redressed and crimes punished in 
the name of and by the sovereign power of the state. Except 
in times of war, or some other public exigency affecting the gen- 
eral welfare, he rarely sees in his immediate presence an exercise 
of federal power. It is reasonable, therefore, to expect that the 
state would have a stronger hold on the people than the federal 
government, and therein lies the safety of the states. 

When the great southern rebellion collapsed, and the hand of 
the conqueror had blotted out not only the confederacy but the 
rebellious states themselves, order was restored to the political 
chaos thus created through the subjugated people themselves. 
Their habits of local self-government, and their traditions in- 
stinctively impelled them to seek protection from anarchy and 



98 HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 

misrule by restoring their old state organizations. And this they 
did, meeting and overcoming congressional legislation and fed- 
eral bayonets with passive endurance. They reorganized their 
states under such regulations as their conquerors would permit, 
and were then ready to resume their places in the Union. 

The exhortation of patriots and the teachings of political phil- 
osophers as to the importance of preserving the reserved rights 
of the local organizations will not materially lengthen their ex- 
istence. States must depend for their perpetuity on the devotion 
to their maintenance which habit, discipline, tradition and edu- 
cation have planted in the hearts of the people. It is the prov- 
ince of statesmanship to study and to know what it is that as- 
sures perpetuity to our existing institutions ; to do everything to 
strengthen and nothing to weaken the power that gives such as- 
surance. The ruler in this country who would weaken the hold 
which the home governments have upon the people is no states- 
man. 

However specious the pretence under which the federal gov- 
ernment may interfere with the local affairs of the state, it is a 
step in the wrong direction. It is a step towards the abolition 
of home government and the establishment of a consolidated em- 
pire. When once these United States are transformed into a 
consolidated empire, the strong arm of a despot will be the only 
power that can maintain territorial unity. Superficial reformers, 
one-idea philanthropists, are apt to be constantly seeking to carry 
out some specious reform in a sweeping manner by forcing the 
federal government to encroach on the reserved powers of the 
states, and to exercise authority outside of its appropriate juris- 
diction. The spirit as well as the letter of the Constitution ought 
always to be observed. The people ought always to see matters 
pertaining to the general welfare of all the states regulated by 
the federal government, and matters of a local and domestic 
character regulated by the states. 

At the present time there are reformers who propose to wipe 
out ignorance from among the masses of people throughout the 
whole country by donations to be made by the federal government 
t6~the different states, according to the degree of illiteracy in 
each. This proposition is a proposition pernicious in principle, 
inasmuch as by its terms it offers the largest reward to the great- 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 99 

est ignorance. It is a proposition in violation of the spirit if 
not the letter of the constitution, inasmuch as it proposes to have 
the federal government interfere with the masses in the different 
states. There can be no good objection to the establishment of a 
grand university by federal authority, upon federal territory, 
where all learning and science may be taught to the ingenuous 
youth of all the states, as was contemplated by the fathers of the 
republic. The creation of such an institution might well be re- 
garded as within the scope of the powers granted to the federal 
government and as a judicious exercise thereof. But for the 
federal government to interfere with the education of the mas- 
ses of the people in the different states by irregular and unequal 
donations cannot be otherwise than mischievous in every aspect 
of the matter. Better, far better, it must be to leave each state 
to do its own work of education, stimulated by that spirit of emu- 
lation which it is reasonable to suppose will always animate co- 
equal states. It is certainly to be hoped that the peculiar struc- 
ture of our government will be remembered whenever this meas- 
ure and kindred measures are considered. 

No good can come from a violation of the Constitution in any 
particular. Any apparent advantage thereby gained is much 
more than counterbalanced by the bad precedent established and 
the consequent relaxation of the restraint imposed by all con- 
stitutional limitations. Civil liberty will remain with us while 
the Constitution is obeyed, while the federal government is re- 
strained to the use of its delegated powers and the states are 
maintained in the independent exercise of their reserved powers. 

At the present time the tendency is to an undue expansion of 
the power delegated to the federal government, and an undue 
contraction of the reserved powers of the states. The thoughtful 
patriot will anxiously seek to check this tendency, and to hold 
the federal government and the states in their respective posi- 
tions as fixed by the constitution. He will remember that the 
United States are what their motto, E Pluribus TJnum, im- 
plies — one, so far as the federal government can act, but many 
and independent of each other so far as the individual states can 
act. 



100 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

The Issues at Stake in the State Campaign. 

{From the Riverside Monthly, October, 1890*) 

I have been invited to make a statement of the ground on 
which the Democratic party will act in the coming election, and 
was informed that Mr, Chandler would make a similar state- 
ment for the Republican party. In responding to this invitation 
I can only give the political theories and principles of the Dem- 
ocracy as expounded by the early leaders, Jefferson, Madison 
and Jackson, and ever since acted upon by the party, and discuss 
their application to the measures now before the people for con- 
sideration. 

The Democracy believe, first, that all governmental power 
ought to be limited by the most narrow bounds consistent with 
the safety of the public; that the individual ought to be free to 
be a law unto himself, and that the scope of his action and judg- 
ment ought always everywhere to be enlarged, saving and ex- 
cepting that he must not trespass on his neighbor ; that the people 
are sovereign ; that they retain in their own hands all the power 
that they have not delegated either to the state or federal govern- 
ments; and that those governments were ordained by the people 
for the people, and may be altered or abolished by the people in 
their own good pleasure. 

The Democracy believe, secondly, that the fundamental laws 
by which the people have delegated certain power to the federal 
government, and certain other powers to the state governments, 
while retaining all powers not so delegated, must be scrupulously 
observed; that in administering both the state and federal gov- 
ernments the original plan by which those governments were 
framed should be remembered. 

These ideas have guided the Democracy in their action upon 
public measures. The party opposed to the Democracy since 
the foundation of the government, under all the different names 



*The publication of the Riverside Monthly was commenced in October, 
1890, by Alpheus Sherwin Cody, a native of Michigan, then proof-reader 
for the Republican Press Association, the first issue containing, aside 
from other matter, this article by Mr. Bingham, and the one by Mr. 
Chandler to which Mr. Bingham alludes in the opening. Only three 
numbers appeared, publication being suspended after the December 
issue. Mr. Cody is now a Chicago author and publisher. 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 101 

it has borne, has been prone to seek the augmentation of federal 
power and to use it for partisan ends. 

This party, known today by the name Republican, is giving us 
many illustrations of its centralizing tendencies. It is now 
about to enact into law the McKinley bill so called. This bill is 
not claimed to be a bill for revenue, but for protection — for the 
prohibition of trade. 

The Democracy denounce a tariff simply prohibitory in its na- 
ture, and for protection merely, as unconstitutional. The only 
protection which the Constitution permits is the incidental pro- 
tection afforded by a tariff for revenue. The McKinley bill is 
one illustration of the disregard of the Constitution by the Re- 
publican party when it stands in their way. 

The position of the Democratic party is that the Constitution 
limits the power of Congress to a tariff for revenue, with the 
incidental protection that can thereby be given. They have al- 
ways contended that trade is one of the great sources of national 
wealth and power, and that, whether foreign or domestic, it ought 
not to be unnecessarily crippled. The trade of New England 
with the rest of the Union is of vast importance to her. So, too, 
in the same manner, if not to the same extent, her trade with 
Canada and the outside world is generally beneficial to her. 

The Democracy denounce the McKinley bill as unconstitu- 
tional, and charge that, in utter contempt of the best interests 
of the country, it is designed to cripple trade and destroy our 
foreign markets; to add to the already overgrown fortune of 
monopolists, and to impoverish stiU further the masses ; and that 
it is supported and about to be enacted into a law by a corrupt 
alliance between monopolists and Republican partisans, whereby 
money is to be raised and corruptly used to carry elections for 
the Republican party. 

The Democracy will always resist the McKinley bill until re- 
pealed, and demand a general reform of the tariff. They believe 
that our infant industries have grown to be strong, and that the 
products of our manufacturing establishments and our agricul- 
ture have increased so much beyond home consumption that in 
order to have competent and remunerative employment for our 
labor we must have foreign markets; that a prohibitory tariff 
enables the few to form trusts and monopolies, and enrich them- 



102 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

selves at the expense of the many; that it enables the manu- 
facturer to limit the demand for labor by limiting production to 
the home markets, and to sell in that market at his own prices, 
and, also, arbitrarily to fix the wages of the laborer; that there 
never was a greater humbug than the claim that a prohibitory 
tariff is beneficial to the laborer ; that, on the contrary, by limit- 
ing production, it limits the demand for his labor and makes him 
pay higher for what he buys, and get less for his labor ; and that 
there is no class of people in this country at the present time so 
much interested in having tariff reform as the laboring class. 

The Democracy look with loathing on, and strongly condemn, 
the extraordinary means that have been used and are being used 
by the corrupt alliance of monopolists and Republican partisans 
in pushing this McKinley bill to be enacted into law, and in se- 
curing it permanently on the statute-book. They condemn the 
arbitrary and defiant conduct of the speaker of the present con- 
gressional house of representatives, and his despotic overruling of 
the construction given the Constitution since the foundation of 
the government, contrary to his own often expressed convictions, 
avowedly for the purpose of securing the passage of the McKin- 
ley bill and other bills allied with it. 

They condemn the Force bill, commonly so called, as danger- 
ous, arbitrary, and, if enacted, sure to destroy American liberty. 
They condemn it as a measure introduced in aid of the McKinley 
bill, put up and put down, brought forward and postponed, ac- 
cording as the passage of the McKinley bill might be aided. 

They charge that the purpose of the Republican partisans and 
their allies, the monopolists, is to enact the Force bill into law 
for the purpose of creating machinery that shall enable them to 
perpetuate the present Republican majority in future congresses, 
and thus maintain the McKinley bill permanently on the stat- 
ute-book. They charge that for the same purposes it has been 
sought to make the senate permanently Republican by giving 
seats in that body as senators to persons from the state of Mon- 
tana who were never elected, and by admitting territories to state- 
hood which had not the requisite population. 

The Democracy especially denounce the Force bill because, if 
it be enacted into a law and put into force, it will inevitably de- 
stroy the balance between state and federal power, and enable 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 108 

irresponsible federal officers to do the registering (that is the se- 
lection of voters), the counting and the certifying of results, and 
thus to appoint the members of Congress for the several states, 
while the people of the states are absolutely defrauded. 

They charge that this is centralization with a vengeance; that 
such a law will arm the party now in control of the federal gov- 
ernment with the means of perpetuating their dominion forever, 
with no accountability to the people; that the federal register- 
ing, counting, and certifying will certainly be done; that there 
will be on the assembling of every Congress prima facie evidence 
sufficient to establish a reliable Republican majority ; that nobody 
who has witnessed the security of Republican seats and the frail 
tenure of Democratic seats in the present Congress can have any 
doubt that a Republican majority once established at the organi- 
zation will never be impaired ; that then the people will be power- 
less, resistance useless; if attempted, the bayonet will do its 
work. 

One reason assigned by the Republicans for the passage of the 
Force bill is that they want an honest count. The Democracy 
charge that it is not an honest count the opposition want, but a 
dishonest count of their own making. The originators of the 
Force bill design to do their own registering, certifying and 
counting, — such counting as was done in Florida, Louisiana and 
South Carolina in 1876. 

The Democracy charge that there can be no reliance placed 
upon a count made by the federal officers under the Force bill ; 
that those officers have no accountability to the people; that the 
officers under state governments do their work under the eye of 
the people, and are directly responsible to them; that, there- 
fore, under the Force bill, the people have no assurance of an 
honest count, while under the state governments they have in 
their own hands the means of enforcing an honest count. 

It is further contended that there is a conflict of races in the 
South, and for that reason the negro is intimidated, and does not 
vote, and thus it is necessary to take the elections out of the 
hands of the people in the North and in the South, and put them 
in the control of irresponsible persons by a general law. 

Nothing can be plainer than that this is a mere pretense for 



104 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the usurpation of dominion over elections, and for taking them 
out of the hands of the people. 

If there ever could be any reason for such a law on account 
of the negro, it was when he was first emancipated and endowed 
with all the rights and privileges of citizenship. The South was 
then in a chaotic condition. The negro was profoundly ignorant, 
with none of the habits qualifying one to discharge the duties of 
a freeman. He could easily be ensnared by absurd delusions 
and the arts of unprincipled demagogues. 

At this time a bill like the Force bill was introduced into Con- 
gress, considered, and rejected as dangerous to the peace and lib- 
erty of the country. 

At the present time the Southern people have themselves es- 
tablished good order, and both races are prospering in all re- 
spects. Great progress has been made by the blacks in educa- 
tion, in acquiring habits of industry and economy, and in their 
general well-being. It is the uniform testimony of every candid 
observer who has visited the South, that there is no occasion for 
interference from abroad with the affairs of the Southern states, 
and that such interference will create there mischief, and mis- 
chief only. 

The Democracy further demand the enactment of the law com- 
monly called the Australian Ballot Law, supported by the De- 
mocracy of the New Hampshire Legislature of 1889, and then 
and there defeated by the Republican party. This reform is in 
issue in the present canvass, and is imperatively necessitated in 
order to remedy the great and growing evils that the Republican 
methods have inaugurated. The wholesale bribery of voters in 
this state and aU over the country in the interests of the Repub- 
lican party, and particularly the purchase of the presidency in 
1888, and also the gross intimidation of employes in our manu- 
facturing and other establishments where laborers are employed, 
call loudly for this reform. 

Such are some of the issues on which the New Hampshire 
Democracy will fight the fall campaign. 




Hon. Harry Bingham 

At 45 years. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 



While Harry Bingham was preeminently a lawyer — so re- 
garded by men of his own time and, undoubtedly, so to be re- 
garded by the historical student in the years to come — he was 
nevertheless conspicuous as a legislator. A careful and extended 
examination of the record reveals the name of no man in the 
state whose service in the Legislature covered so long a period of 
time as that of Mr. Bingham, and if there has been any such, he 
must have served in the early days. Certainly, no man serving 
cotemparaneously with him at any time had so long an experi- 
ence in legislative work, or gained so wide distinction for effici- 
ent service. Between the years 1861 and 1893, Mr. Bingham was 
twenty times elected to the New Hampshire Legislature, either 
as a representative or senator, all but two of these elections being 
for service in the former capacity, which record, it may safely 
be asserted, can be matched by that of no other man of his time. 
The nearest approach to it is to be found in the cases of the late 
Hon. George W. M. Pitman* of Bartlett, who was twelve times 
elected to the House and twice to the Senate, his first election 
being as a representative in the Legislature of 1853, and his last, 
also to the House, for the Legislature of 1893- '94, and of Gren. 
Oilman Marston of Exeter who was fourteen times elected to 
the House. Daniel M, Christie of Dover was elected to the House 
twelve times, but never served in the Senate. 

The late Hon. John G. Sinclairf of Bethlehem probably 



♦George W. M. Pitman, born in Bartlett May 8, 1819, died in that 
town December 3, 1898. He was a surveyor, lawyer and merchant, and 
long prominent in town, county and state affairs, being a leader of the 
Democratic party, in his section of the state. He served in the House 
of Representatives in 1853-4-5-6-7-9 and in 1863-4-5-8-9; in the Sen- 
ate in 1870 and 1871, being president the latter year, and in the 
House again in 1893-'94. He was judge of probate for Carroll County 
from 1874 to 1876, and served in the Constitutional Conventions of 
1850, 1876 and 1889, a distinction which, it is said, no other citizen 
of the state enjoyed. 

tJohn G. Sinclair was born in Barnstead March 25, 1826, and died in 
Bethlehem June 27, 1899. He was educated in the common schools and 
at Newbury (Vt.) Seminary. He located in Bethlehem in early man- 
hood, where he engaged in trade, and in hotel keeping, establishing the 



106 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ranked next, having served as a representative in the Legislature 
nine times from that town and once from Littleton, and twice in 
the state Senate from the old Twelfth District. Hon James W. 
Emery was ten times elected to the House from Portsmouth, 
and Samuel B. Page* of Haverhill, recently deceased, was also 
ten times elected to that body — six times successively from the 
town of Warren, once from Ward Six, Concord, and three times 
from Haverhill. The late William M. Weed of Sandwich and 
Joseph Q. RoUes of Ossipee, each served in the House in nine 
different Legislatures ; while of present day legislators, James E. 
French of Moultonborough takes the lead in length of service, 
having been a member of the House during the last seven con- 
secutive biennial sessions, also in 1878, and a member of the 
Senate in 1887. William J. Ahem of Concord, Ward Nine, is 
a close second to Mr. French, however, having been chosen a 
representative in 1895, and at every successive biennial election 
since, with the exception of 1899, when he was his party's can- 
didate for sheriff of Merrimack County. 



well known "Sinclair House." He also subsequently engaged extensively 
in lumbering and starch manufacture. He took a lively interest in 
politics from youth, as a Democrat, and was first elected to the Legisla- 
ture from Bethlehem in 1853, being reelected the three following years 
in succession and again in 1863 and 1864 from Bethlehem; from Little- 
ton, where he resided for a short time, in 1874, and from Bethlehem 
again in 1876-7-8. He was also a member of the State Senate from the 
old twelfth district in 1859 and 1860. He was one of the ablest political 
debaters that the state ever produced, and his joint debate with Walter 
Harriman, when the latter was the Republican candidate for governor 
and he the Democratic, in 1867, was the most exciting ever known in 
New Hampshire. He was also the Democratic candidate in 1868 
and 1869. 

* Samuel B. Page was a native of Littleton, where he was born June 
23, 1838. He was educated in the common school and in the academies 
at Kingston, N. H., and Lyndon, Vt. He studied law with Harry Bing- 
ham and at the Albany (N. Y.) Law School, graduating from the latter, 
and finally locating in practice in the town of Warren, where he re- 
mained until 1870, representing the town in the Legislature for six suc- 
cessive terms, from 1864 to 1869 inclusive. In 1870 he removed to 
Concord, where he represented Ward Six in the Legislature of 1871. 
Subsequently he removed to Woodsville in the town of Haverhill, from 
which town he was sent to the Legislatures of 1881, 1889 and 1893. Mr. 
Page was noted both for his readiness as a speaker and his skill as a 
parliamentarian, in both of which respects he was without a peer in the 
state. As a political speaker he did more service for his party — the 
Democratic — than any other man of his time. He was chairman of 
the Democratic state committee in 1869 and 1870, and a delegate in the 
National Convention in 1900. He was also a delegate in the Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1876. He died at Woodsville, April 6, 1910. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. lQ>j 

Chosen to the House in 1861 and reelected each succeeding 
year, to and including 1865, his first period of service covered 
the strenuous and exciting years of the Civil War, when party 
spirit ran high, passion sometimes overcame judgment and the 
conduct of men was commended or condemned according to the 
varying standards of duty or patriotism by which it was meas- 
ured. So far as Mr. Bingham's action was concerned, however, 
in this, or any other period of his legislative service, no man of 
any party who knew him well ever alleged or believed that it 
was, in any instance, inspired by other than an honest purpose 
and sincere desire to promote the welfare of his constituents and 
of the public at large. A thorough-going party man, he was, 
nevertheless, no narrow partisan. He regarded his party merely 
as a means or agency for the promotion of the general good; 
and he adhered to the Democratic party, defended its principles 
and policies and supported its organization, solely with a view 
to that end. 

The House of Representatives in the Legislature of 1861, in 
which body Mr. Bingham first took his seat as a representative 
from Littleton, his colleague from that town being Douglas 
Robins, a substantial farmer, father of Rev. J. E. Robins, D. D., 
who has twice served as chaplain of the House in recent years, 
was organized by the choice of Edward Ashton Rollins* of 
Somersworth as speaker; Edward Sawyer of Dover as clerk 
and Samuel D. Lord of Manchester, assistant clerk. Mr. Rol- 
lins received 191 votes against 114 for Aaron P. Hughesf of 

♦Edward Ashton Rollins, born in Wakefield, N. H, December 8 
1828, died at Hanover, September 7, 1885. He was a son of Hon.' 
Daniel G. Rollins, and removed with his father to Great Falls in 
Somersworth, in childhood, where he attended school. He fitted 'for 
college at the academies in Gilmanton and Rochester, and graduated 
from Dartmouth in the class of 1851. He studied law in Baltimore and 
Great Falls, and at the Harvard Law School, and commenced practice 
^L^^'ic^i i--.o?o f^""^ ''' *^^ Legislature from Somersworth in 
1860, 1861 and 1862, being speaker the last two years. Subsequently 
he was appointed cashier of the internal revenue bureau at Washington 
and in 1865 was made commissioner, serving till 1869. He removed to 
Philadelphia, where he was for a time president of the National Life 
Insurance Company. In 1876 he established the Centennial National 
Bank of which he was president till his death. He was a warm friend 
and liberal benefactor of Dartmouth College, and Rollins' chapel at that 
institution IS the principal monument to his memory 

tAaron P. Hughes, born in Windham, N. H., May 7, 1815, died at 
Worcester, Mass., February 23, 1864. Mr. Hughes studied law with 



108 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Nashua, the Democratic candidate. Although a new member, 
Mr, Bingham's standing as a lawyer and acknowledged ability, 
were such as to command prompt recognition at the hands of 
the speaker who assigned him to a prominent position upon the 
judiciary committee^ then as always, embracing the ablest 
lawyers of the House. This committee included: James W. 
Emery* of Portsmouth, chairman; Charles W. Woodman of 
Dover, Aaron P. Hughes of Nashua, Harry Bingham of Little- 
ton, George "W. Murray of Canaan, Elijah M. Topliff of Man- 
chester, Cornelius V. Dearborn of Peterborough, Josiah H. Hobbs 
of Madison, Moses Eaton, Jr., of South Hampton and Stephen 
Kenrick of Franklin. 

Among the more prominent members of the House at this 
session in addition to those named, were: Moses N. Collins of 
Exeter, David H. BufEum of Somersworth, Charles S. George 
of Barnstead, Joseph Q. Rolles of Ossipee, John "W. Sanborn of 
Wakefield, Lyman D. Stevens of Concord, Natt Head of Hook- 
sett, Martin H, Cochran of Pembroke, Francis N. Blood of 
Hillsborough, Ezekiel A. Straw of Manchester, Charles J. Smith 
of Mount Vernon, Moses A. Cartland of Weare, Daniel W. Bill 
of Gilsum, Charles J. Amidon of Hinsdale, Levi Chamberlain 
of Keene, James Burnap of Marlow, Paul J. Wheeler of New- 
port, Eleazer B. Parker of Franconia, Nathaniel W. Westgate of 
Haverhill, David Culver of Lyme, and Thomas J. Smith of 
Wentworth. Among all these the only present survivor is Elijah 
M. Topliff of Manchester, one of Mr. Bingham's associates of the 



A. F. Sawyer of Nashua, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. He 
located in practice in Nashua and soon acquired distinction as an advo- 
cate. He was originally a Whig in politics, and was a delegate to the 
National Convention that nominated General Taylor for president in 
1848. He served as postmaster of Nashua from 1849 to 1853 and was 
a member of the Legislature in 1854. In 1856 he joined the Democratic 
party and was prominent in its councils till the time of his death. He 
served in the Legislature in 1861 and 1862. He was also conspicuous 
in Free Masonry and was at one time master of the Grand Lodge of 
New Hampshire. 

*James Woodward Emery was a native of Haverhill, Mass., born 
November 30, 1808, He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1830 and 
read law with Ichabod Bartlett at Portsmouth, whose partner he be- 
came, continuing till the death of the latter in 1853. He served in the 
House of Representatives in ten different Legislatures — in 1843, 1844, 
1846, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1861, 1872, 1873 and 1874, being speaker in 1873. 
He died at Portsmouth, November 16, 1891. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 109 

judiciary committee; and of the entire meraberschip of the 
House that year very few survive, the names of William Nourse 
of Newport and Warren F. Daniell of Franklin, who also served 
his first term that year, being the only ones, aside from that 
of Mr. Topliff, recalled with certainty. 

It may be noted that Mr. Bingham's first assignment to duly 
was made before the announcement of the standing committees, 
on the first day of the session, when he was named by the speaker 
as the minority member of a committee of three, to take into 
consideration the messages of Governors Ichabod Goodwin 
and Nathaniel S. Berry, the outgoing and incoming chief magis- 
trates, both of whom addressed the Legislature in joint con- 
vention — the former upon retiring and the later upon taking 
the oath of office — and report what disposition should be made 
of the several subjects therein. Mr. Collins* of Exeter, upon 
whose motion the committee was appointed, and Mr. Cartlandf 
of Weare were his associates upon this committee, which in due 
time performed its duty and reported accordingly. 

Mr. Bingham naturally and by general consent, took rank 



♦Moses N. Collins was born in Brentwood, April 15, 1820. He at- 
tended the academies at Gilmanton and Hampton Falls, and taught 
school for several years before entering upon the study of the law, 
which he pursued at Epping for a time, and concluded with Gen. Gil- 
man Marston at Exeter, being admitted to the bar in 1857 and com- 
mencing practice in Exeter. He had represented Brentwood in the 
Legislature in 1855, and was elected from Exeter in 1861 and 1862, 
enlisting in the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment the latter year, in 
which he was commissioned major. Subsequently he was promoted to 
lieutenant-colonel, being succeeded as major by Evarts W. Farr of 
Littleton. He was shot through the head and instantly killed in the 
Battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864. 

tMoses A. Cartland was prominently known as a teacher and as a 
leader of the abolition movement. He was a native of the town of Lee, 
bom November 17, 1805. He was a Quaker, educated in the noted 
Friends School at Providence, R. I. He established the famous Clin- 
ton Grove Academy in Weare in 1834, and was its principal for fourteen 
years, many able men there receiving instruction. Subsequently he was 
for a time principal of the Walnut Grove School in Lee. Later he re- 
turned to Weare and taught a year or two. He had a farm on Burnt 
Hill, near North Weare, where the last years of his life were passed. 
He was a cousin and close friend of the poet, Whittier, and was for a 
time his assistant in editing the Pennsylvania Freeman. He was also 
connected with other publications, including the New Hampshire 
Journal of Agriculture and Journal of Education. He was superintend- 
ing school committee in Weare several years, but served in the Legis- 
lature only in 1861. He died in Providence. July 5, 1863. 



110 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

with the leaders of the minority in the House, sharing with 
Francis N. Blood of Hillsborough, chairman of the Demo- 
cratic legislative caucus and Aaron P, Hughes of Nashua, the 
party candidate for speaker, the honor and responsibility at- 
taching to such position. As a member of the judiciary commit- 
tee, he devoted himself earnestly to the important work in hand, 
and was immediately recognized by his fellow members as a 
man of great ability, resolute purpose, and sincere devotion to 
duty, giving every measure coming before the committee for 
consideration such attention as its merits demanded. He held 
position upon this committee during his entire legislative career, 
in both branches and it is safe to say that no man in the state, 
since the organization of the government, has exercised greater 
influence in shaping legislation. Many a wholesome measure 
has found its way upon the statute book through the support 
he gave it in the committee room, and many a vicious bill has 
been killed by his determined opposition in the same place. 
Indeed the judgment of no other man of any party, in any 
period of our history, has been more generally deferred to by 
his associates in the work of legislation, in all matters except 
those of a partisan nature, than was that of Mr, Bingham 
throughout his long period of service. 

By far the most important measure that came before the 
Legislature of 1861, and the one whose presentation and con- 
sideration aroused the most earnest discussion, both in and out 
of that body, was what was generally known as the "Million 
Dollar Bill" — a measure entitled "An Act to Aid in the Defence 
of the Country, ' ' reported from the House Committee on Finance 
by Mr. Straw of Manchester on the 20th day of June and laid on 
the table to be printed and distributed on motion of Mr. Hughes 
of Nashua, By the terms of this measure the governor was au- 
thorized, with advice and consent of the council, "to take such 
measures as he deemed best for arming, equipping, disciplining, 
maintaining and transporting such military force of the state, 
as in his judgment may be needed for defending and maintain- 
ing in its full integrity the authority of the government of the 
United States, and the Constitution and laws thereof, ' ' 

Expenses had already been incurred by the Governor on be- 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. HI 

lialf of the state, in raising, equipping and transporting troops, 
and by the terms of this act, it was provided that ' * for the pur- 
pose of meeting expenses already incurred, or any that may be 
incurred under this act, or any other act to provide for the de- 
fence of the country," etc., "the treasurer is authorized to 
issue bonds or certificates of debt in the name and on behalf of 
the state, to an amount not exceeding $1,000,000." 

The position of the minority in the Legislature, in reference 
to this great war measure, which provided an appropriation so 
large as to render infinitesimal by comparison any former state 
appropriation for any purpose, and which clothed the Governor 
with power and discretion in the matter of expenditure and in 
the enlistment of men, such as no previous executive had ever 
exercised or held, was in accordance with the generally existing 
sentiment of the Democratic party of the state and country. 
The generally accepted position of the Democratic party in the 
early days of the Civil War period was that the power and au- 
thority of the federal government over all its territory and 
property, wherever located, was to be maintained at all hazards 
and that all attempts on the part of the Southern Confederacy 
to capture and hold government fortifications or reservations 
anywhere, or to invade the federal territory or that of any state 
not in revolt, were to be resisted and defeated at whatever cost. 
It was not generally held or believed by Democrats, however, 
that the general government would be justified in waging a 
war of subjugation against the seceding states; much less that 
it should carry on a war for the liberation of the southern 
slaves, which object was unhesitatingly avowed by some of the 
more radical leaders of the opposite party, even at that time. 
It was generally felt by Democrats, in and out of the Legis- 
lature, therefore, that this measure, considering the magnitude 
of the appropriation, and the vast power left by its terms in the 
hands of the governor, was unwarranted by the demands of the 
occasion, and effort was made to secure its modification in vari- 
ous directions, but without success. 

The bill came up on second reading on Wednesday, June 26, 
when certain minor amendments were proposed and considered, 
but the measure was not then farther acted upon. On the fol- 



112 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

lowing morning, however, the bill was taken up, on motion of 
Mr. Emery of Portsmouth. Mr. Blood of Hillsborough moved 
to make it the special order for the next day at 11 o'clock. Mr. 
Emery moved to amend by fixing the time at 4 o'clock that 
afternoon. Mr. Blood accepted the amendment, but expressed 
a desire for greater knowledge of the situation before final ac- 
tion, as did Mr. Bingham, who had no inclination to "approve, 
ratify and confirm" doubtful contracts, as he might be doing 
in voting for the bill, so far as he then knew. The bill was then 
made in order for 4 o'clock p. m. 

When the bill came up, in order, in the afternoon, a motion 
was made by Mr. Blood of Hillsborough to amend by substitut- 
ing $500,000 for $1,000,000, as the amount of the appropriation 
called for, and he proceeded to speak at some length in support 
of his motion and in general discussion of the situation. Mr. 
Emery of Portsmouth replied and was followed by Mr. Bing- 
ham in the most extended speech of the discussion. 

In opening, Mr. Bingham said there were important objec- 
tions to the bill and if its passage in the present form were 
urged, he should be compelled to vote against it. "We all know 
the fact of war, he remarked. It has been in our thoughts by 
day and in our dreams by night. It is time for us to talk about 
and begin to comprehend it. We have seen the people rushing 
to the defence of their capital against threatened invasion, and 
it was one of the noblest spectacles our free institutions could 
have furnished; but he did not understand that there was now 
any danger of the capital being taken. The questions now forc- 
ing themselves upon our attention are: How shall we preserve 
our institutions? Is this war to be carried on for the subjuga- 
tion of sovereign states, and to reduce them to the condition of 
conquered provinces? Does the gentleman from Portsmouth 
(Mr. Emery) take this position? he asked. 

For his own part, Mr. Bingham declared, he believed, there 
were only two ways in which we could reclaim the seceded states — 
either by compromise or by subjugation. One means or the other 
must be adopted. He was for defence, but not for subjugation. 
We have been bom and educated in a land of liberty and our 
supreme duty is to preserve the constitutional liberty which has 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 113 

descended to us from the fathers. When we hold sovereign 
states by force of arms, ours is no longer a free government, but 
a military despotism. Coercion must necessarily result in na- 
tional consolidation. If we subjugate, it necessarily follows that 
we abolish state rights. He had recently heard a remark at- 
tributed to the Secretary of War (Simon Cameron) to the effect 
that when this war is over we shall hear no more talk about 
"Virginians," " Pennsylvanians, " and "New Yorkers," but we 
shall only be known as "Americans." In Mr. Cameron's judg- 
ment we are to have a national consolidation after the war; but, 
as for himself, he was in favor of the constitution as it is — of 
the government as it is — and opposed to consolidation. The 
necessary result of reducing states to subjugation by force must 
be to wipe out every vestige of their sovereignty; therefore, he 
was opposed to any coercion. He would defend the govern- 
ment property and the capital, whenever or by whomsoever at- 
tacked, but he protested against subjugation — against the con- 
quest of sovereign states. 

He illustrated by reference to the present condition of Mexico, 
where Santa Anna abolished state sovereignty and the result has 
been continual anarchy ever since, a republic existing only in 
name. If our government is thus consolidated the result must 
necessarily be the same. But our people will never submit to 
the anarchy and disorder of Mexican misrule. They will rather 
choose one strong man for a ruler and we shaU have a Napoleon 
or a Ccesar for our future government. God deliver us from 
this! We must expect the most determined resistance from the 
states we attempt to subject. They are fighting on their own 
soil. We could bring ten men to defend our own borders, where 
we could carry one over there. We will find these people 
rallying as one man in defence of their own property and soil. 
An attempt to coerce and subjugate them must necessarily fail; 
and, if in the end, the states ever come together again, it will 
be, not through arms, but by compromise. 

He objected to this administration or any other overturning 
the government, and he protested against it. It is the govern- 
ment that our fathers gave us — a government based on the con- 
stitution as it is and the laws as they are constitutionally made. 



114 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

How shall we best preserve it ? Life is nothing, money nothing, 
in defending it. To protect it is our sacred duty. Regarding 
the pending bill, he said he would vote for a million dollars if 
necessary; but he did not believe over half a million would be 
required. He protested, however, against a one-man power. 
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." If you would pre- 
serve your liberties, preserve your constitution. Under this bill 
the governor can give such rank and such pay as he chooses. 
He may act fairly, but the bill gives him the power to do other- 
wise. He objected, decidedly to this feature of the bill. Why 
authorize the governor to fix the pay of the officers and not of 
the soldiers? Why not let all stand together, on existing laws 
in this respect? He approved of authorizing the governor to 
liquidate existing contracts, and saving him harmless from liabili- 
ties already incurred, and if the detailed information which 
had already been called for should prove satisfactory, there could 
be no objection to the first section of the bill. 

At the conclusion of his remarks, Mr. Bingham moved that 
the bill be made the special order for the following day (Friday, 
June 28), at 11 a. m. Mr. Emery moved to amend by making 
the time that evening, which amendment was accepted, and the 
matter arranged accordingly ; but the bill was not reached again, 
in fact, till the following afternoon, when discussion followed, 
participated in by Messrs. Hughes of Nashua, Woodman of 
Dover, Emery of Portsmouth, Bingham, and Smith of Went- 
worth. ]\Ir. Hughes expressed his desire to sustain the govern- 
ment which both his grandfathers had fought to establish; but 
he deprecated the spirit of intolerance manifested by the sup- 
porters of this measure, relating the fact that when passing 
out of the hall the previous day, he heard a man declare that 
he "ought to be hung" for moving a reduction of the appropria- 
tion from $1,000,000 to $500,000; which circumstance goes to 
illustrate the bitterness of feeling that prevailed at the time. 
Mr. Bingham, in reply to Messrs. Woodman and Emery in their 
criticism of his remarks of the day previous, and their lauda- 
tion of President Lincoln, expressed his satisfaction that free 
discussion was had. That the country was in a deplorable con- 
dition was not to be disputed, he said. He was for restoring 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 115 

peace and there was no one willing to do more to effect such 
result; but it was to the government of our fathers and not to 
Mr. Lincoln, merely, that the people must look in the emer- 
gency. "I firmly believe," said he, ''that the subjugation of 
sovereign states and the holding them as conquered provinces 
by despotic power, would be a most disastrous move. This is 
my view and I leave my record for the justification of coming 
time." 

The question recurring on the motion of Mr. Hughes to 
amend by making the appropriation $500,000 instead of $1,000,- 
000, the negative prevailed, the yeas and nays being demanded 
and the vote standing, yeas, 112; nay«, 176. 

Mr. Smith of Wentworth proposed to amend by inserting the 
word "lawful," so as to authorize the governor to respond to 
only lawful calls for troops by the president, and spoke earnest- 
ly in support of his motion. The House adjourned, however, 
to half-past seven in the evening, with the matter pending. 
Upon reassembling consideration of the measure was resumed, 
the question being upon Mr. Smith's motion which was re- 
jected — yeas, 87 ; nays, 154. 

Mr. Bingham then moved to amend by inserting: "Provided 
that such military force is not employed in subjugating and 
holding as a conquered province any sovereign state, now, or 
lately, one of the United States." He demanded the yeas and 
nays upon the question, the vote resulting : yeas, 92 ; nays, 
165; and the amendment was rejected. The bill was then 
read a third time, and passed by a vote of 196 to 94, 
the yeas and nays having been called for by Mr. Abbott* of 
Concord, who desired to go on record in favor of the measure. 

Mr. Bingham immediately gave notice that he should claim 



*David J. Abbott represented Ward 6, Concord, in the House in 
1860 and 18C1. He was a native of Auburn, Me., born July 26, 1820. 
He came to Concord when a young man and was employed as a painter 
by the Abbot-Downing Co., and subsequently by the Northern Railroad. 
In 1862-'63 he was a deputy assessor of internal revenue. In 1864 he 
went to Washington where he had charge of the government painting 
for several years. Subsequently he was made inspector and receiver 
of material for the new state, war and navy building, the work on 
which was in progress about ten years. He returned to Concord in 
1884, and died April 27, 1889, being an alderman from Ward 6, at the 
time of his decease, and then serving on his second term. 



116 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

his constitutional right to enter upon the journal his written 
protest against the passage of the bill. 

Upon the afternoon of Tuesday, July 2, the bill for the re- 
organization of the militia being under consideration, Mr, Hun- 
toon of Hanover offered an amendment, inserting the word 
"white," so as to exclude colored men from the service, but 
upon opposition expressed by Mr. Emery of Portsmouth, with- 
drew his amendment. Mr. Bingham thereupon immediately re- 
newed it. He said the Constitution of the United States de- 
clared that the militia should consist of ''free, white able-bodied 
citizens," and that the Governor of Massachusetts (Banks) had 
vetoed a bill in which the word "white" had been omitted. 
He declared that the Constitution was the supreme law of the 
land, and any act of any state against it, a violation thereof. He 
called for the yeas and nays upon his motion to amend and the 
same was rejected by a vote of 116 to 154. On the next and 
closing day of the session, however, reason and common sense in 
a measure resumed sway, and, on motion of Mr. Goodall of 
Portsmouth the House reconsidered its action and adopted this 
amendment by a vote of 221 to 32. 

On the afternoon of this last day, also, Mr. Bingham pre- 
sented, for insertion in the record, the protest against the "mil- 
lion dollar bill," notice of which he had previously given, the 
same being signed by himself and ninety other members. He 
proceeded to read the same, but had only partially completed 
the reading when Mr. Chamberlain of Keene arose and objected 
to further reading; but, on motion of Mr. Eaton of South 
Hampton, he was permitted, by a decisive vote to proceed, and 
completed the reading of the protest, which, with the signatures 
appended, here follows: 

Protest Against The Passage of An Act Conferring Extra- 
ordinary Powers on the State Executive. 

The undersigned claim their constitutional right of entering 
upon the journal of the House this their protest against the 
passage of a bill entitled "An act to aid in the defense of the 
country," with the following, their reasons therefor: 

1. Because the bill compels us to approve, ratify and con- 
firm "AH payments made by the Governor and Council, or by 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 117 

their authority and direction, in order to furnish troops from the 
State for the defense of the United States, or for enlisting, arm- 
ing, equipping, disciplining, maintaining or transporting said 
troops, or in any way connected therewith;" of the nature, ex- 
tent, validity and equity of which we know so little as to be 
entirely unable to form any definite judgment relative thereto, 
and because, from any information communicated to this House, 
we cannot assure ourselves or our constituents that it would be 
safe and proper for us thus to approve, ratify and confirm. 

2. Because, by the provisions of this bill, the power to con- 
sider and determine what appropriations are necessary, and 
what disposition has been and shall be made of the money of 
the people, how and by what agents disbursed, and in what man- 
ner accounted for, is taken from the representatives of the peo- 
ple, to whom such power constitutionally belongs, and sur- 
rendered to the executive branch of the government. 

3. Because we cannot permit transactions of any branch of 
the Government to be sealed up from the eyes of the people, or 
to be placed beyond their power to examine, inspect and judge. 

4. Because we cannot regard the action of this House, in the 
rejection of the amendments proposed to the bill, as other than 
the assurance that the present war may be waged, by unlawful 
means, for conquest, subjugation, national consolidation, and 
the extinguishment of State sovereignties, and we are unalter- 
ably opposed to the attainment, by any means, of such objects. 

Disavowing all considerations and motives of a partisan char- 
acter, we enter our protest against this bill, because of its loose, 
irresponsible, extravagant provisions, and also because we desire 
to put upon the record our earnest will to protect the State 
against the exercise of a degree of executive power such as the 
Constitution never contemplated, and the people never before 
dreamed of. When such an extraordinary appropriation was 
submitted for our sanction, we had a right to know, and the peo- 
ple had a right to know, distinctly and specifically, where their 
money was to go, for what purpose it had been and was to be 
applied, and by what suitable checks its disbursement had been 
and was to be applied, and by what suitable checks its disburse- 
ment had been and was to be guarded. We cannot consent to 
give to the idle catch-phrases of the day the weight due alone 
to reason and argument. The political party to which we be- 
long has, fortunately, no occasion for new and extraordinary 
demonstrations of devotion to the flag of our country. They 
have never heaped malediction upon it, or upon the Constitu- 
tion. They have not only loved and honored it, but they have 
upheld and defended it at home and abroad, on sea and land, 



118 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

at all times, and in all places. They have striven to "maintain 
the government" as it descended to them, and in the spirit 
which animated their fathers — not a "consolidated" govern- 
ment, such as is now occasionally foreshadowed, but a govern- 
ment composed of independent sovereign States, united for the 
purpose expressed, and clothed with the powers delegated by 
the States, and the people, and with no other. This Union, 
which has been our pride and delight, had its birth in the 
adoption of the Constitution. Upon that instrument, as its 
firm foundation, warmed and strengthened by glorious memories 
of the dangers, trials and privations of a seven years' conflict 
for independence, hedged all round by the forces of mutual 
affection and interest, it stood for the first fifty years in calm 
dignity, assuring fraternal regard among all its members, — 
safety for the rights of every citizen, of every latitude, through- 
out the broad extent of our land; an amount of individual and 
social freedom and prosperity hitherto unknown, security at 
home, and respect throughout the world. It was only when the 
provisions of the Constitution itself, relating to domestic servi- 
tude, came to be denounced and boldly repudiated, that all these 
great interests and precious blessings were seriously imperilled. 
We are ready to make any appropriation reasonable in itself 
and properly guarded, which looks practically to restored respect 
for constitutional rights, and, consequently to restored fraternity, 
unity, peace and prosperity. Nay more, for these objects we are 
ready to pledge, and we do hereby individually pledge "our 
lives, our fortune and our sacred honor." But we enter our 
solemn protest against making this the occasion for inaugurating 
in New Hampshire, legislation of which the bill just passed is 
a type. We will not sanction appropriations of the people's 
hard earnings, unheard of in amount, without figures, without 
facts, without sound reasons as a basis. This legislation, in 
our judgment, does little less than to invite peculation. It is 
not material that this debt is to be refunded, and that the bonds 
are to be redeemed this year, the next, or the year after. Thej^ 
are to be paid sometime, by us or by our children. It is vain 
to remind us of the old Latin maxim, so often reproduced of 
late, that in the midst of arms laws are silent. If we go back 
to the origin of that maxim, we shall fmd that in the midst of 
arms the best institutions have been overthrown, and, upon the 
tyrant 's plea of necessity, great liberties have been crushed under 
the iron heel of military despotism. However important may be 
other objects contemplated, or to be achieved by this war, noth- 
ing can be more important than for the people to hold to their 
hands, with a firm grasp, all the rights which our fathers de- 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 



119 



livered to us ; among these, and above all, the sacred and personal 
security of the Jiabeas corpus, the freedom of opinion and the 
freedom of utterance. We have demanded a specification of the 
objects for which this unparalleled call upon the industry and 
income of our constituents is predicted. We have asked whether 
this war contemplates reunion, and if so, in what manner arms 
are to achieve that object. We have asked whether it means 
the desolation of Southern homes, the overthrow of Southern 
institutions, and the destruction of our own race there. We have 
demanded more perfect security for the economical, faithful, 
legitimate application of this vast amount of money, and the 
result is that we are turned round upon the privilege which we 
are thankful is yet reserved to us, of spreading upon the Jour- 
nal of the House this our respectful, earnest, solemn PROTEST. 



Harry Bingham, 
Aaron P. Hughes, 
William Barrett, 
Charles J. Smith, 
Thomas J. Smith, 
Henry H. Smith, 
J. C. Smith, 
Thomas Smith, 
James A. Morrill, 
Asa Simonds, 
Silas Dinsmore, 
Moses F. Coolidge, 
Cyrus Fowler, 
Thomas Tarlton, 
John Teel, 
John G. Huntoon, 
Daniel W. Bill, 
Wells Currier, 
E. M. Swett, 
Richard Cole, 
Daniel G. Stickney, 
David Curtis, 
Stephen C. Pattee, 
George S. Rundlett, 
A. g"^ Robie, 
J. W. Lang, Jr., 
Levi T. Piper, 
Douglas Robins, 
John Mcllvin, 
Daniel Holt, 
Daniel Marshall, 



Charles F. Gallup, 
William Clark, 
Morrison Rowe, 

E. T. Coleman, 
Joseph P. Trefethen, 
Simon Brown, Jr., 
Thomas Berry, 
Elias M. Hall, 
Charles S. George, 

F. N. Blood, 
Moses Eaton, Jr., 
James W. Abbott, 
Fletcher I. Bean, 
Hosea B. Aldrich, 
E. B. Parker, 
William L. Shattuck, 
C. L. Plaisted, 

John Proctor, 
Wesley Knowles, 
C. F. Montgomery, 
A. Q. Wendell, 
A. W. Harriman, 
J. H. Taylor, 
Phinehas Rosebrook, 
Noah 0. Smith, 
Cummin gs Pierce, 
Daniel George, 
Ezekiel S. Flanders, 
Samuel S. Plaisted, 
Stillman Swallow, 
Levi C. McDaniel, 



120 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Ebenezer S. Pike, James Randall, 

Nathaniel L. Sanborn, Ira M. Weeks, 

Henry H. Dunklee, John B. Favor, 

Osgood Page, Bradbury T. Brown, 

Jonas Parker, E. H. Goodhue, 

George W. Blakeslee, W. A. McGregory, 

Minot Farley, Reuben Loveren, 

F. A. Dolloff, Levi Robinson, 

D. S. Ward, J. V. Morse, 

Lyman Rounseville, William H. Sawyer, 

Ransom P. Beckwith, John McNeil, 

A. C. Burnham, John W. Sanborn, 

Albart Brown, Duren F. Stoddard, 

George P. Clark, Gilman Twitchell. 
Daniel Moore, 

In the legislative session of 1862 Mr. Bingham's colleague in 
the House, from Littleton, was again Douglas Robins. Edward 
Ashton Rollins of Somersworth was reelected speaker, Mr, Bing- 
ham himself being the Democratic nominee and receiving 114 
votes to 193 for Mr. RolKns. Samuel D. Lord of Manchester was 
chosen clerk, and Benjamin Gerrish, Jr., of Dover, assistant 
clerk. Charles W. Woodman* of Dover was chairman of the 
judiciary committee; Aaron P. Hughes of Nashua had second 
place and Mr. Bingham, as in the year previous, was next in 
rank. 

It will be noted that it had not come to be the custom, in those 
days, to "bunch" the minority representatives on the judiciary 
committee together at the "tail," as is now the case; but the 
more prominent of their number were given positions near the 
head. Other members of the committee included Messrs. Topliff 
of Manchester, Dearborn of Peterboro, Hobbs of Madison, Wil- 



♦Charles W. Woodman was a native of Rochester, son of Jeremiah 
and Sarah (Chase) Woodman, born December 7, 1809. He gradu- 
ated from Dartmouth College in 1829, studied law with Ichabod 
Bartlett of Portsmouth and Richard Bartlett of Boston, was admitted 
to the bar in 1833, and opened an office in Great Falls, but removed 
to Dover in the year following and there continued till his death, 
January 24, 1888. He was solicitor for Strafford County from 1839 
to 1841; Judge of Probate from 1841 to 1853; Associate Justice of 
the Court of Common Pleas from 1854 till the abolition of the court 
by the Legislature the following year; and for more than thirty years 
a United States Circuit Court Commissioner. He was a member of 
the Legislature in 1861 and 1862, and again in 1878 and 1879. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 121 

liam E. Chandler and Charles P. Sanborn of Concord, Daniel P. 
Wheeler of Orford and John M. Freese of Deerfield. 

Included in the membership of the House this year were Henry 
O. Kent of Lancaster, James W. Patterson of Hanover, subse- 
quently a representative and senator in Congress, and John Y. 
Mugridge and William L, Foster of Concord, the latter subse- 
quently chief justice of the Circuit Court, also associate justice 
of the Supreme Court. 

The delegation from the City of Concord was exceptionally 
strong that year, as the names already mentioned fully indicate. 
Mr. Chandler, who was then serving his first term, soon gained 
national distinction in political life ; Mr. Sanborn, an able young 
lawyer, afterwards became speaker of the House, while Mr. 
Mugridge was long one of the most conspicuous members of the 
Merrimack County bar. In this connection it may not be im- 
proper to remark that there seems to be a growing inclination 
on the part of lawyers of ability to avoid the duties and responsi- 
bilities of public life, especially in the line of legislative service. 

There was little excitement in connection with the proceedings 
of the House during this session, the only partisan demonstra- 
tions of any account being made in connection with certain elec- 
tion contests and an attempt on the part of the minority, led by 
Mr. Bingham, to secure the modification of certain resolutions 
reported from the committee on national affairs, by striking out 
a clause declaring, in substance, that as a matter of military 
necessity it became the right and the duty of the president, as 
commander-in-chief, ' ' to confiscate the property of wilful rebels, 
to the full extent which such necessity may at any time demand. ' ' 
It was about this time, it will be remembered, that the more ad- 
vanced or extreme among the supporters of the administration 
in the conduct of the war, had begun to read into the Federal 
Constitution, those extraordinary implied powers of the execu- 
tive, which in more recent years have come to be regarded in 
various high quarters as a matter of course, but the exercise of 
which the Democratic party in those days regarded as nothing 
more nor less than rank usurpation. 

The most interesting election contest was that which involved 
the unseating of Nathaniel P. Coleman, Democratic representa- 



122 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

tive from the town of Newington. It seems that the town had 
voted, on the annual election day, not to send a representative 
that year; but at an adjourned meeting, on the day following, 
this vote was reconsidered, and, the Democrats being out in 
greater force than the Republicans, many of the latter having 
remained at home with the understanding that no representative 
should be chosen, an election was proceeded with, with the result 
that Mr. Coleman, having a decided majority of the votes cast, 
was declared elected, received his certificate and at the opening 
of the session, was duly qualified and took his seat. The Repub- 
lican leaders of the town, however, assuming that they had been 
''tricked" by their opponents, put up a contest on ground of 
irregularity, depending upon the strength of partisan spirit for 
success, and succeeded in the closing days of the session, in 
ousting Mr. Coleman from his seat after quite a struggle, charac- 
terized by an earnest debate, in which Daniel Barnard* of Frank- 
lin, for the majority of the committee on elections, and Mr. 
Bingham, were the principal speakers, the arguments of the latter 
being so effective that several Republican members voted with 
the minority, the vote on the adoption of the resolutions for 
unseating Mr. Coleman, taken June 26, standing: Yeas, 153; 
nays, 125. 

A legal debate of some interest, which occurred at this session, 
was that upon an act regulating the evidence in trials of actions 
on the case for slander, whose passage was strongly opposed by 



*Daniel Barnard, long a leading lawyer of the state, was born in 
the town of Orange, in Grafton County, January 23, 1827. He was edu- 
cated at Canaan Academy, and taught school for several winters in 
youth. When twenty-one years of age he was elected to the Legislature 
from his native town and three times successively reelected. He studied 
law with Nesmith & Pike at Franklin, was admitted to the bar in 
1854, and located in Franklin, where he remained in active practice 
up to the time of his death, January 10, 1892. He was a represen- 
tative from Franklin in the Legislature in 1860 and 1862, a state 
senator in 1865 and 1866 (being President of the Senate the latter 
year) and a member of the executive council in 1870 and 1871. He 
was also solicitor for Merrimack County from 1867 to 1872, and a 
delegate to the Republican National Convention the latter year. In 
1884 he was defeated as a candidate for the Republican nomination 
for Congress in the Second District by Dr. Jacob H. Gallinger, by a 
close vote. In 1887 he succeeded the late Col. Mason W. Tappan 
as attorney general, which office he held at the time of his death. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 123 

Mr. Foster of Concord, and advocated by Mr. Bingham, with 
the result that it passed by a decided majority. 

At the close of the session, July 8, the customary resolution 
of thanks to the speaker was presented by Mr. Bingham, with 
felicitous words of commendation. 

In 1863, Mr. Bingham had as his colleague in the House Mr. 
Franklin J. Eastman, a leading merchant of Littleton, a younger 
brother of Col. Cyrus Eastman, who subsequently removed to 
Northiield and was conspicuous in the business and political 
life of the town. William E. Chandler was chosen speaker, re- 
ceiving 176 votes to 134 for Thomas J. Smith,* of Wentworth, 
the Democratic nominee. Samuel D. Lord was reelected clerk 
and Benjamin Gerrish, Jr., assistant clerk. 

Partisan feeling continued exceedingly bitter, and Democratic 
opposition to the administration policy in the conduct of the 
war was generally and often strongly manifested. There had 
been no election of governor by the people. Hon. Ira A. East- 
man of Gilmanton, an able man and distinguished lawyer, who 
had served four years in Congress — from 1839 to 1843, and six 
years as an associate justice of the Supreme Court — from 1849 
to 1855 — was the Democratic candidate and had come very near 
to an election, receiving 32,833 votes to 29,035 for Joseph A. 
Gilmore, the Republican nominee; but Gen. Walter Harriman, 
who had left his party and been nominated by the "War Demo- 
crats," so-called, had 4,372 votes, thus defeating a choice, so 
that the election was thrown into the Legislature, which, of course, 



♦Thomas J. Smith was a native of Dorchester, N. H., born April 
18, 1830. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1852, studied law 
with Jonathan E. Sargent at Wentworth and was admitted to the 
bar in 1855, and commenced practice in that town, where he had 
been appointed postmaster while yet a student in 1853, holding the 
office till 1861. He was chosen to the Legislature for five successive 
year from 1861 to 1865, inclusive, and was among the active leaders 
on the Democratic side from the first. In 1866 he was chosen to the 
State Senate from the Twelfth District, and reelected in 1S67. In 
1868 he removed to Dover, where he remained in the practice of 
his profession till 1886, meanwhile serving as Clerk of the Senate 
in 1874 and 1875, and Secretary of the Constitutional Convention 
of 1876. In 1886 he was made Deputy Naval Officer at Boston, and 
the following year was appointed Solicitor of Internal Revenue by 
President Cleveland, continuing till 1889. Later he was in railway 
service in New Jersey and died at Mauasquuu, in that state, May 
1, 1892. 



124 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

elected Gilmore, minority candidate though he had been before 
the people. 

The chairman of the judiciary committee, this year, was 
Daniel M. Christie* of Dover, a lawyer of preeminent ability, 
who had seen much service in the House, in earlier years, Mr. 
Bingham being now accorded second place, with Blood of Hills- 
borough and Smith of Wentworth, following, and Barton of 
Newport, Rolfe of Concord, Clarke of Manchester, Burleigh of 
Somersworth, Morgan of Francestown and Leavitt of Hampton 
constituting the balance. 

Although strong in the Legislature the Republican party's 
control of the state was by no means assured, and ths leaders 
looked to the Legislature for the enactment of some measure or 
measures that should operate to the party advantage. To this 
end it was proposed to pass an act by which the votes of the 
soldiers from the state in the government service could be 
utilized, it being realized that such votes could mainly be con- 
trolled in the interest of the party in charge of the national 
government. An act was finally drawn, by whose terms the 
New Hampshire soldiers who were legal voters in the state were 
authorized to vote by proxy in the several towns and wards 
from which they entered the service, and the same, entitled "An 
Act to secure the right of suffrage to qualified voters in the 



*Daniel M. Christie was a native of the town of Antrim, born 
October 15, 1790. Under discouraging circumstances he worked his 
way through college, graduating from Dartmouth in 1815. He 
studied law with James Walker of Peterborough, and commenced 
practice at York, Me., removing shortly to South Berwick and in 1823 
to Dover, where he continued through life, gaining a reputation as a 
Bound and able lawyer second to that of no man of his time. He had 
no taste for political life, but answered all calls of the people, and 
served his town and city in the Legislature in twelve different years 
in all, commencing in 1826. That he was not called to national 
legislative service was due to the fact that his alliance was with the 
minority party in the nation, during the most of his active life, as 
was precisely the case with Mr. Bingham, although they were mem- 
bers of opposing parties. Mr. Christie was an old man when brought 
in close contact with Mr. Bingham in committee service in this Legis- 
lature, but it is known that each formed a high estimate of the 
character and abilities of the other. Dartmouth College conferred 
upon Mr. Christie the degree of LL. D. in 1857. He was twice 
offered the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New 
Hampshire, but declined the same in each instance. He died at Dover, 
December 8, 1876. 



LEGISLATIVE SERYICE. 125 

state engaged in the military or naval service of the state or the 
United States, ' ' was introduced in the House on the 8th of June 
by Mr. Barton of Newport. It was laid on the table to be printed, 
on motion of Mr. Foster of Concord and copies sent to the jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court for their opinion as to its constitu- 
tionality. Three days later, on motion of Mr. Barton, it was 
taken from the table and referred to the committee on the 
judiciary, by a vote of 119 to 110, with instructions to consider 
the same and report as soon as practicable. 

Though the proposition embodied in the bill was a subject of 
animated discussion among the members individually, and on 
the part of the press and the people of the state, it was not 
brought before the House for action for some time, and it came 
to be understood that the Supreme Court justices regarded the 
measure as unconstitutional, though nothing had been heard 
from them directly regarding the matter. On June 24, Mr. 
Sinclair of Bethlehem introduced a resolution which was adopted, 
as it could not be consistently opposed, instructing the judiciary 
committee to inquire whether the Supreme Court had been prop- 
erly notified of the requirement of the House in relation to the 
bill in question, and if so, if the same had been considered and a 
determination reached ; if not to ascertain why, and if a decision 
might be hoped for during the session. 

As bearing directly and strongly upon the much mooted mat- 
ter of soldiers' votes, Mr. Sinclair on the same day introduced 
another resolution in the House, as follows : 

Whereas, the President of the United States has dismissed 
Lieutenant Andrew J. Edgerly* from the military service for 
voting the Democratic ticket in our late state election, in accord- 
ance with the following order : 



*Andrew J. Edgerly was a native of the town of Barnstead', born 
in the year 1828. He learned the trade of machinist early in life, 
and was engaged in the employ of the Amoskeag Manufacturing 
Company at Manchester, where, in 1861, he enlisted in the Third New 
Hampshire Regiment, and subsequently in the Fourth, in which he 
was commissioned second lieutenant of Company E, and promoted 
to first lieutenant January 17, 1862. He was wounded, and after 
a time sent home on recruiting service, in which he was engaged 
at the time of the March election in 1863, when he voted and worked 
for the Democratic ticket, and immediately after which his dismissal 
came. He subsequently removed to the town of Haverhill, from 



126 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, 
Washington, March 13, 1863. 
Special Order No. 119 (Extract) 

34. By direction of the President, the following officers are 
duly dismissed from the service of the United States : Lieut. A. 
J. Edgerly, 4th N. H. Volunteers, for circulating "Copperhead 
tickets ' ' and doing all in his power to promote the success of the 
Rebel cause in his state. 

By order of the Secretary of War, 

L. Thomas, Adjutant-General. 
To the Governor of New Hampshire. 

And Whereas^ the people of New Hampshire, irrespective of 
party, have furnished in full their quota of men and money to 
carry on the war for the restoration of the Union and the main- 
tenance of the Constitution, and Whereas the candidate for 
Grovemor upon the Democratic ticket stigmatized in the above 
order as the ' ' Copperhead ticket, ' ' received nearly one-half of all 
the votes of the electors cast, and several thousand more of their 
votes than any other candidate for that office, including the one 
who was supposed to particularly represent the views and pur- 
poses of the national administration ; and Whereas, the above 
order, in its dismissal of Lieut. Edgerly for the reasons therein 
assigned, falsely assumes the cause of the Democratic party to 
be the rebel cause, thereby indirectly charging nearly one half 
the people of New Hampshire wdth the guilt of treason ; and 
Whereas, our liberties cannot exist without the preservation of 
the freedom of elections, therefore 

Resolved, That we disapprove the above order as a foul slander 
upon the Democratic party, as unjust to Lieut. Edgerly, as in- 
sulting to the people of New Hampshire and as endangering our 
free institutions by establishing a precedent of unwarrantable 
interference with the freedom of elections. 

This resolution, on motion of Mr. Sinclair, was referred to the 
committee on the judiciary. 

On June 27, Mr. Christie of Dover, chairman of the judiciary 



which he was elected a representative in 1874. He was appointed 
adjutant general of the state that year by Governor Weston, and 
served till 1876. He died at Medford^, Mass., February 26, 1890. That 
his dismissal from the military service of the government was an 
act of gross injustice, inspired by partizan malignity rather than 
any patriotic sentiment is shown by the fact that a subsequent care- 
ful investigation of the case was made by the committee on military 
affairs of the National House of Representatives, resulting in the 
passage of a bill by Congress fully exonerating him, and giving him 
an honorable discharge dating from March, 1863. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 127 

committee, on behalf of a majority of said committee, reported 
the bill to the House favorably without amendmcDt. The speaker 
at the same time presented the opinion of Chief Justice Bell and 
Associate Justices Bellows, Nesmith and Bartlett, to the effect 
that the bill, in its most prominent feature, was in conflict with 
the spirit and provisions of the constitution of the state. 

A minority report from the judiciary committee, signed by 
Messrs. Bingham, Blood and Smith, and manifestly written by 
Mr. Bingham, was presented, as follows: 

1. The undersigned regard the said proposed bill as a pal- 
pable violation of the plainest provisions of the Constitution of 
the State of New Hampshire. 

2. If said bill were constitutional it proffers nothing to the 
soldier but a shadow, for it does not secure to him the right of 
suffrage free from coercion and fraud ; nor does it provide any 
adequate protection against the frauds which may be and in 
all human probability will be attempted upon the law,' thereby 
furnishing a means for the destruction of the freedom and purity 
of the elections, for the overthrow of our free institutions and 
substituting in their place, as chance may dictate, either des- 
potism or anarchy. And we, therefore, recommend the following 
resolution : 

Resolved, That the said bill be indefinitely postponed. 

The whole subject was then recommitted to the judiciary 
committee, from which committee, on July 3, a resolution was 
reported by Mr. Barton, and unanimously adopted, postponing 
the bill until the next session of the Legislature. 

On the same day, July 3, a majority report from the judiciary 
committee, relieving the committee from further consideration 
of the Edgerly resolution, came into the House. A minority 
report, signed by Messrs. Bingham, Blood and Smith, was also 
presented, recommending the adoption of the resolution, which 
latter report was advocated by Messrs. Sinclair and Bingham, 
but the matter went over, undisposed of, giving place to the 
general order. 

On the same day, also, a majority of the select committee on 
national aft'airs sent in a report recommending the adoption of 
certain accompanying resolutions, embodying the idea of con- 
stitutional construction which had been adopted by the federal 
administration, concerning the powers of the executive, and 



128 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

to which the Democratic party generally took exception. This 
report was signed by Daniel M. Christie, Henry P. Rolf e, Stephen 
G. Clarke, Levi W. Barton, Oliver P. Hubbard and I. D. Stewart. 
A minority report from the same committee was presented at 
the same time, signed by Harry Bingham, John G. Sinclair, 
Thomas J. Smith and William W. Bailey, evidently written by 
Mr. Bingham, which was as follows: 

MINORITY REPORT. 

We, the undersigned, a minority of the committee on national 
affairs, beg leave to present the following resolutions, and to 
recommend their passage, 

Harry Bingham, 
'John G. Sinclair, 
T. J. Smith, 
W. W. Bailey. 

Resolved, We do solemnly, and without mental reservation, 
declare our fidelity to the Constitution of the United States, and 
to the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, as 
the supreme law of the land, and we will, to the best of our 
albility, support, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of 
the United States against all of its enemies, and we demand of 
all public rulers and magistrates, State and National, that they 
shall do likewise. 

2. We repudiate, as dangerous and revolutionary, the doe- 
trine that a state of war confers upon the President of the 
United States, or his subordinates in authority any powers, execu- 
tive, legislative or administrative, over persons or property, above 
or beyond what are vested in him or them by the Federal Con- 
stitution. We admit no military necessity to justify any viola- 
tion of the Constitution, which is the guide and safeguard of 
rulers and people alike, in peace and in war, and in all conditions 
of public affairs the military should ever be subordinate to the 
civil power. 

3. That there is a manifest difference between the administra- 
tion of the government and the government itself. The govern- 
ment consists of the civil and political institutions created by 
the Constitution, and to it the people owe allegiance. The ad- 
ministration are but the agents of the people, subject to their 
approval or condemnation, according to the merit or demerit of 
their acts. 

4. That in the exercise of the right to differ with the Federal 
Executive, we enter our solemn protest against the Proclamation 
of the President of the United States, dated the first day of 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 129 

January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, by which 
he assumes to emanicipate slaves in certain states, holding the 
same to be unwise, unconstitutional and void. 

5. That we declare our determined opposition to a system of 
emancipation by the states upon compensation to be made out of 
the treasury of the United States as burdensome upon the people, 
unjust in its very nature, and wholly without warrant of the 
Constitution. 

6. That we declare that the power which has recently been 
assumed by the President of the United States, whereby, under 
the guise of military necessity, he has proclaimed and extended 
— or asserts the right to proclaim and extend — martial law 
over states where war does not exist, and has suspended the writ 
of habeas corpus, is unwarranted by the Constitution, and its 
tendency is to subordinate civil to military authority, and to 
subvert our system of free government. 

7. That we hail with pleasure and hope the manifestations of 
conservative sentiment among the people of the Northern States, 
in their elections, and regard the same as earnest of a good pur- 
pose on their part to cooperate with all other loyal citizens in 
giving security to the rights of every section, and maintaining 
the Union and Constitution as they were ordained by the found- 
ers of the Republic. 

8. That whenever it becomes practicable to obtain a convention 
of all or three fourths of the States, such body should be con- 
vened for the purpose of proposing such amendments to the 
Federal Constitution as experience has proved to be necessary 
to maintain that instrument in the spirit and meaning intended 
by its founders, and to provide against future convulsions and 
wars. 

9. That the soldiers composing our armies merit the warmest 
thanks of the nation. Their country called, and nobly did they 
respond. Living, they shall know a nation 's gratitude ; wounded, 
a nation *s care ; and dying, they shall live in our memories, and 
monuments shall be raised to teach posterity to honor the patriots 
and heroes who offered their lives at their country 's altar. Their 
widows and orphans shall be adopted by the nation to be watched 
over and cared for as objects truly worthy a nation's guardian- 
ship. 

10. That the arrest, imprisonment, pretended trial, and actual 
banishment of Clement L. Vallandigham, a citizen of the state 
of Ohio, not belonging to the land or naval forces of the United 
States, nor to the military authority, for no other pretended 
crime than that of uttering words of legitimate criticism upon 
the conduct of the Administration in power, and of appealing 



130 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

to the ballot-box for a change of policy (said arrest and military- 
trial taking place where the courts of law are open 'and unob- 
structed, and for no act done within the sphere of active military 
operations in carrying on the war), we regard as a palpable 
violation of the following provisions of the Constitution of the 
United States: 

1. Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the free- 
dom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peace- 
ably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress 
of grievances. 

2. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures 
shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon 
probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particu- 
larly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things 
to be seized. 

3. No persons shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise 
infamous crime unless on a presentment or an indictment of a 
grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces ; 
or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public 
danger. 

4. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the 
right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the 
state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, 
which district shall have been previously ascertained by law. 

July 9, the reports on the Edgerly resolution again came up 
as unfinished business, the question being on a pending motion 
by Mr. Page of Gilmanton to indefinitely postpone the same. 
The yeas and nays were demanded on the motion, by Mr. Bing- 
ham and the affirmative prevailed : Yeas, 172 ; nays, 129. 

The reports from the committee on national affairs did not 
come up for final action until July 10, when Mr. Sinclair moved 
to substitute the minority for the majority report, upon which 
motion Mr. Bingham demanded the yeas and nays, the vote 
resulting : Yeas, 122 ; nays, 162 ; so the motion was lost. 

Mr. Bingham then moved to amend the majority report by 
adding : 

Resolved, That the people of New Hampshire will never con- 
sent to any abridgment of the freedom of speech and of the 
press; nor to any interference with the freedom of elections, in 
violation of the Constitution and laws of the state or the United 
States. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 131 

Mr. Clarke of Manchester offered a substitute for this, which 
was finally adopted, as follows: 

Resolved, That free thought, free speech and a free press are 
indispensible to the maintenance of free institutions, and that we 
condemn any interference with their exercise by either mob 
violence or executive power. 

The majority report, as amended, was then adopted, 171 to 110. 

In 1864 Mr. Bingham again had as his Littleton colleague in 
the House, Mr. Franklin J. Eastman. The House organized 
by the reelection of William E. Chandler of Concord as speaker 
(he receiving 201 votes to 109 for John G. Sinclair, the Demo- 
cratic nominee), and the choice of Benjamin Gerrish, Jr., of 
Dover as clerk, and Charles B. Shackford of Conway as as- 
sistant clerk. Levi W. Barton* of Newport was named as 
chairman of the judiciary committee, with Aaron W. Sawyer 
of Nashua in second place, and Mr. Bingham following, the re- 
maining members being, Messrs. Smith of Wentworth, Sinclair of 
Bethlehem, Clarke of Manchester, Burleigh of Somersworth, 
"Wheeler of Dover, Leavitt of Hampton, and Hackett of Ports- 
mouth. 

No serious attempt was made at the June session to pass the 
soldiers voting bill, which had been postponed from the session 
of the previous year, and the same was finally indefinitely post- 
poned. Subsequent events proved, however, that the friends of 
the movement had by no means abandoned it. 



*Levi W. Barton, born in Croydon, March 1, 1818, died in Newport, 
March 10, 1899. He received his preliminary education in the public 
schools and Unity Academy, taught school several winters, and was 
married at an early age. His wife dying, he changed his plans and 
determined to secure a college course and enter professional life. He 
fitted for college at Kimball Union Academy, entered Dartmouth and 
graduated in 1848 with James W. Patterson, Henry P. Rolfe and Anson 
S. Marshall. He commenced the study of law at Hanover, during his 
senior college year, with Hon. Daniel Blaisdell, and continued, after 
graduation, with Judge Kittredge at Canaan, where he became principal 
of the Academy, and also postmaster, continuing until the completion 
of his studies, in 1851, when he settled in practice at Newport and there 
remained. He was register of deeds for Sullivan County from 1855 to 
1857, and solicitor from 1859 to 1864. He was a representative in the 
Legislature in 1863 and 1864, and again in 1875, 1876, 1877, meanwhile 
serving in the Senate jn 1867 and 1868, making seven years of legislative 
service, during five of which he was judiciary chairman. He served in 
the Constitutional Convention of 1876, was a presidential elector the 
same year, and a member of the commission to revise the laws in 1877. 



132 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

While the war excitement was still high, and partisan feeling 
upon issues growing out of the war as intense as ever, other mat- 
ters occupied the attention of the Legislature to a considerable 
extent, one of these and decidedly the most exciting, being the 
question of a new state house, and the location of the same. 
There was a hot fight between Manchester and Concord, with 
the result that the latter triumphed, retaining the capital up- 
on condition of furnishing a new building, free of cost to the 
state, in accordance with plans submitted to and approved by 
the Legislature. The test vote had come on the Manchester 
proposition which was defeated — 92 to 190. Mr. Bingham took 
no active part in this controversy, though his vote is recorded 
with the affirmative, in favor of Manchester, only two other 
members from Grrafton County voting with him — Messrs. Sin- 
clair of Bethlehem and Dean of Danbury. 

Another matter which commanded a good deal of attention 
at the time was a bill introduced at this session authorizing the 
governor and council to commute the sentence of one Thomas 
Wier* who had been tried, convicted and sentenced, in the Graf- 



*Thomas "Weir, an Enfield shoemaker of intemperate habits, then 
about 45 years of age, enlisted in the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers 
in August, 1861. Before departing for the front he placed his two 
youngest daughters with the Shaker Society at Enfield, agreeing never 
to take or attempt to take them away so long as they were contented 
to remain. In May, 1862, he was discharged from the army for dis- 
ability, and finally made his way back to Enfield. After a time he 
wanted his daughters, and sought to get them back from the Shakers, 
but was refused. Angered by repeated refusals, he procured a revolver, 
and, on the 18th of July, met Caleb M. Dyer, trustee of the society, in 
the highway near the Shaker home, again demanding the children and, 
being again refused, he deliberately shot Dyer through the abdomen, 
inflicting a wound from which he died in about forty-eight hours. Weir 
was arrested, confined in the jail at Haverhill, indicted, tried at the 
September term of court following, convicted of murder and sentenced. 
Justices Sargent and Doe presided at the trial, the prosecution was con- 
ducted by Attorney General William C. Clarke, assisted by County Solici- 
tor Alonzo P. Carpenter, and C. W. and E. D. Rand were counsel for the 
respondent. A good deal of maudlin sympathy had been aroused in 
Weir's behalf from the fact that he had been a Union soldier, which in 
those days of war excitement was sufficient "to cover a multitude of 
sins," and the result was the presentation of petitions to the Legislature, 
and the inauguration of a strong movement in that body for commuta- 
tion, which finally culminated in the passage of the bill in question. 
Weir remained in prison though several attempts were made to secure a 
pardon, till in July, 1880, he was pardoned by Gov. Natt Head and set 
at liberty. He returned to Enfield, and lived quietly in that and the 
adjoining town of Lebanon for many years, dying at East Lebanon 
in 1898. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 133 

ton County Court, for the murder of Caleb M. Dyer, at Enfield. 
Petitions were presented asking for the commutation of Wier's 
sentence and the same were referred to a special committee, ap- 
pointed on the 9th of June, Samuel M. "Wheeler* of Dover being 
chairman. This committee, after a good deal of deliberation, 
reported an act authorizing the governor, with advice and con- 
sent of the council, to commute Wier's sentence. It M^as read 
and came up for consideration as a special order on the after- 
noon of July 8, when it was debated at some length, Mr. Bing- 
ham speaking in opposition to the measure. He declared that 
the crime of which this man, Wier, was convicted after a full, 
fair and impartial trial, was a cold-blooded murder of the most 
atrocious kind, as was admitted in all quarters. He questioned 
the ground upon which the measure was predicated; and the 
constitutional warrant of the Legislature to do anything with the 
matter, under any circumstances. The constitutional principle 
was that each department of the government should act inde- 
pendently of the others. It was the business of the Legislature 
to make laws and those laws were to be applied by the Judiciary 
to the offences committed in the community. The Judiciary is 
not to interfere with the business of the Legislature ; nor is the 
Legislature to interfere with the judgment of the Judiciary when 
rendered. The pardoning power is vested in the Executive, 
and if there are any circumstances in this case calling for the 
exercise of this power, the matter should be left to the Execu- 
tive untrammeled or uninfluenced by any legislative action. 

The measure remained undisposed of at this time and its 
further consideration was made a special order for the following 



*Samuel M. Wheeler, son of Albira and Melita (Metcalf) Wheeler, 
was born in Newport, May 11, 1823, and died in Dover, January 21, 
1886. He was educated in the academies at Claremont and at Newbury, 
Vt., and in the military academy at Windsor. He studied law with 
Tracy & Converse at Woodstock, Vt., and Ralph Metcalf of Newport 
and commenced practice in the latter town, removing to Fisherville, 
now Peuacook, a year later, and to Dover in 1853, where he continued 
through life, attaining high rank in his profession, especially as a jury 
lawyer. He was for a time in partnership with Hon. Joshua G. Hall, 
subsequently a member of Congress. He served in the Legislature in 
1864 and 1865; also in 1868, 1869 and 1870, the last two years occupying 
the speaker's chair. He was a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1876. Dartmouth College bestowed upon him the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts in 1866. 



134 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Tuesday, July 12, at 2 o'clock, p. m., when it was again taken up 
and discussed at some length, Mr. Bingham making the prin- 
cipal speech in opposition. He took the ground in the first in- 
stance, that the proposed act involves a principle that would 
render the labors of the court useless, however impartial and 
painstaking they might be, and open the door of escape for crim- 
inals, thus strildng at the very foundation of society. He con- 
tended that the power to commute did not rest in the Legislature, 
w^hose powers were limited to those given by the express terms 
of the Constitution. The pardoning power was vested in the 
Governor and Council, and, the less being included in the 
greater, the power to commute was in their hands alone, and 
the Legislature had no control over it. He referred to the Com- 
mon Law and the Statutes of Great Britain and the colonies to 
show that the power of pardon included commutation, or con- 
ditional pardon as well as absolute pardon, and cited various 
authorities to show that the framers of the Constitution accepted 
the doctrine of the Common Law in this regard. 

Having considered the question in its legal aspects, Mr. Bing- 
ham went on to inquire why the House should be called upon 
to interfere in this case in this obnoxious manner. Why not 
pass a general law empowering the Governor and Council to 
commute all sentences of a like character? What special claim, 
he asked, had this particular criminal over every other who had 
been visited with the sentence of the law? He regarded it as 
extremely dangerous for the House to interfere in the matter in 
this way, and thought the probable mischief that would follow 
should lead members to hesitate about giving the measure their 
sanction. He deprecated the manifest sympathy flowing out 
toward the murderer, on the part of the advocates of the bill, 
who seemed to have lost sight of the victim — a peaceable, ex- 
emplary and worthy man, severely criticised the action of the 
committee having the matter in charge in receiving ex-parte tes- 
timony, not given under oath, and sharply exposed the incon- 
sistency of the arguments presented by the supporters of the 
measure, some of whom held the prisoner to be insane, and yet 
contended that the evidence showed him guilty of murder in the 
second degree, or manslaughter, which would be impossible if he 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 135 

were insane. For his own part he characterized the crime of 
"Wier as a murder as cold-blooded as was ever committed by- 
man. 

In conclusion Mr. Bingham referred to the fact that no 
application had been made to the court for a new trial, which 
would be the proper course to pursue if new evidence had been 
obtained, or if the verdict was considered as against the evi- 
dence. He did not know but a law repealing the death penalty 
would be wise at this time; but he objected to an effort being 
made to attain this end in this case, evidently, on the part of the 
opponents of capital punishment, through the passage of a bill 
like that before the House. 

After a somewhat protracted discussion, in which the bill was 
earnestly supported by Chairman Wheeler and other members 
of the special committee by which it was reported, it again went 
over until the following forenoon, when it was ultimately passed, 
but not without material amendment. Mr. Gate of Northfield 
offered an amendment so changing the measure as to authorize 
the governor and council to commute any capital sentence, and 
accepted an amendment to this amendment providing that the 
bill should not be construed as an expression of opinion on the 
part of the Legislature that the Wier sentence should be com- 
muted. This amendment was adopted, and the bill then passed 
by a vote of 193 to 82, Mr. Bingham demanding the yeas and 
nays and himself voting against the bill. 

At this session the Legislature passed a resolution calling upon 
the New Hampshire representatives in the National House to con- 
cur with the Senate in the adoption of a resolution that had 
already passed the latter body, submitting the then proposed 
Thirteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, abolishing 
slavery, to the legislatures of the several states for ratification. 
This resolution was introduced by Stephen G. Clarke of Man- 
chester, June 3, and referred to a special committee of five, con- 
sisting of Messrs. Clarke, Downs of Lebanon, Swett of Andover, 
Bickford of Dover and Gate of Northfield. The majority of the 
committee, Messrs. Clarke, Downs and Bickford, Republicans, 
reported the resolution favorably, June 9, and on the following 
day, Messrs. Swett and Gate, the Democratic minority, presented 



136 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

a report recommending indefinite postponement, for reasons 
succinctly set forth. The two reports were made a special order 
for the following day, but did not come up for consideration till 
June 15, when a motion to indefinitely postpone, made by Smith 
of Wentworth, was defeated — yeas, 99; nays, 180. Mr. Bing- 
ham did not discuss the resolutions, but spoke briefly against 
a motion to suspend the rules and adopt the resolution at that 
time. The matter went over another day and the resolution was 
adopted by a vote of 160 to 103, the yeas and nays being de- 
manded by Mr. Smith of "Wentworth. 

The Legislature of 1864 not having completed its work to the 
satisfaction of the Governor, at the regular session, or exigencies 
having arisen which, to his mind, warranted such action, soon 
after adjournment he issued a proclamation summoning it to 
meet in extra session on August 9. The first bill introduced at 
this session (though not in line with any purpose of the Gov- 
ernor in calling the same) was a new soldiers voting bill, pre- 
sented by Mr. Dodge of Londonderry, August 10. It was en- 
titled "An Act to Enable the qualified voters of the State, en- 
gaged in the military service of the country to vote for electors 
of President and Vice President of the United States and for 
Representatives in Congress. ' ' The proxy voting plan had been 
abandoned, and the measure provided for voting directly by 
the soldiers in the field. The bill was referred to the judiciary 
committee and on the day following a majority of the com- 
mittee, through Mr. Wheeler of Dover, reported the same, favor- 
ably without amendment. The following minority report, 
signed by Mr. Bingham and John G. Sinclair, and evidently 
written by Mr. Bingham, weis also submitted: 

Minority Report. 

The undersigned, a minority of the committee to whom was 
referred the bill to enable persons in the military service to 
vote, cannot concur in the report of the majority of said com- 
mittee, in favor of the passage of said bill, for the following 
reasons : 

Because the most important provisions of the bill are in 
violation of the letter and spirit of our federal and state consti- 
tutions. 

Because the bill opens the door to the grossest frauds in the 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. jg- 

vass, are entrusted entirely to the offipprT 1++^ . ^-^^ ^^°" 

Ihis brief statement shows how fnllv nil +1,^ P^^^'iity. 
our laws so wisely and caSl WW ^ 5 safeguards, which 

yuuuoiea rignt as a citizen voter of this <ifaip wui, u 

tne held is eommitfpri, in +ii^ /^«?« • • ^^-^^j^ u^ buiaiers in 
them? committed to the officers m immediate power over 

We therefore submit the following resolution- 
deSlost'ptld"^^ ^-^^^ considLtion^naid bil, be in- 

Harry Bingham, 
John G. Sinclair. 

tim^r'^Mf"^-'?^ ^tated_-ShalI the bill be read a third 
Tl TJ^ ^'^^ """'^ """ *'>'= ■■''P»rts and bill be laid 

of the bill to each of the judges of the Supreme Court, with the 



138 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

request that they confer, and report to the House, at the earliest 
practicable moment, their opinion upon the constitutionality of 
the bill. 

The yeas and nays being demanded upon the motion, the vote 
resulted — yeas, 108; nays, 183; Mr. Bingham and the Demo- 
crats generally voting yes. 

On the following day, August 11, Mr. McNeil of Hillsborough, 
moved to amend the bill by striking out all after the enacting 
clause, and inserting the following: 

Section 1. All qualified voters of the State who shall be 
in the actual military service of the United States on the days 
appointed by law for the choice of Electors of President and 
Vice President of the United States, and for Eepresentatives 
of this State in the Congress of the United States, shall be en- 
titled to exercise the right of suffrage for said officers in the 
several cities and towns from which they were enlisted. 

Sect. 2. The Governor is hereby authorized and required 
to request the Secretary of War to grant thirty days furlough 
to all such qualified voters to return to their respective resi- 
dences, in order to so exercise their right of suffrage, in the same 
way and manner in which special furloughs were granted at the 
last March election, provided that they shall not be pledged to 
vote for any particular candidate. 

The yeas and nays being called on the adoption of the amend- 
ment it was defeated — yeas, 106 ; nays, 167. 

An amendment was subsequently adopted, on motion of Mr. 
Sawyer of Nashua, making the act inoperative if determined 
unconstitutional by a majority of the Supreme Court, and mak- 
ing it the duty of the governer to obtain an opinion of the 
court upon the question, and make it public through the news- 
papers before the next presidential election. The bill was then 
passed— -178 to 107. 

The attention of the Legislature during this extra session was 
mainly directed to matters connected with, or growing out of, 
the Civil War, and its prosecution on the Union side, and omis- 
sion should not be made of the fact, in this connection, that when 
a majority of the committee on the judiciary, to which had been 
referred, an act providing for the assumption by the State of 
certain expenses and indebtedness incurred by the several cities 
and towns in connection with the raising of troops, reported a 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. I39 

resolution postponing the same to the next session of the Lejisla- 
ture, Messrs. Bingham and Sinclair presented a minority report 
recommending the passage of the act as a measure of justice to 
the small towns, many of which had been subjected to an undue 
burden of expense. 

The majority report was adopted, however, by a vote of 148 
to 109, the Democrats largely voting against it. 

On August 16, the bill entitled ''An Act to facilitate the rais- 
ing of troops" being under consideration, which measure was 
finally passed, Mr. Bingham moved to amend by striking out the 
words — "which said sums are to be paid in currency\nd not 
m com," his purpose being to insure for the soldier bounty pay- 
ments on a gold basis, instead of "depreciated currency" against 
which so much has been said in later days; but his motion was 
lost, 90 to 109, the Democrats in this case also largely votino- in 
the affirmative. Toward the close of tJie extra session of 1864 
occurred one of the most exciting and disorderly episodes ever 
known m the legislative history of the State. The soldiers vot- 
ing bill, which had been passed in the House and sent to the Sen- 
ate, had finally passed the latter body and been sent to Governor 
Gilmore* for his approval. It had been in his possession nearly 
up to the limit of time allowed him for action, and the course 
which he might pursue in reference to it was awaited with deep 
interest on all sides, since it was generally felt that the sol- 
dier vote in the approaching presidential election might deter- 
mme the outcome in the state as between the two grelt parties 
Strong pre ssure had been brought to bear upon the Governor 

in wSn Vt'^jre nTsif ^^^- ^""^ "^".'^ ^?'^^'^ ^^'^«^^' ^^« born 
>>T,/h!;„ ' . "' ^^^^- ^"^ educational advantages were limitf^d 

but he was energetic and ambitious, and at an earlv a-P w^nf L ^ + ' 

Claremont Railroad, building the line to Rrn^f^^^ tne Loncoid and 
quently superintendent of the^Conco d MancLstei andT^u-r' ' n''" 

sr;s™ss£HH ilfi 



140 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

both for and against his approval of the measure, not only be- 
cause of opposing views as to its constitutionality, but because 
of its anticipated effect, and, although the Governor was him- 
self a Republican, the Democrats, who generally opposed the 
measure, were not without hope that he would ultimately veto 
it. Finally, on Tuesday, August 24, it was whispered about that 
the Governor had at last acted and that a message might be ex- 
pected from him in the House that afternoon, returning the bill 
without his approval. Indeed the majority leaders seemed to 
have determined upon a definite plan of action in reference to 
the reception of the message, and the same developed during 
the afternoon. Their purpose, as subsequently became appar- 
ent, was to stave off its reception by the House, until there 
should be no question that the five days' limit, during which 
the Governor may hold an act that has passed the Legislature 
in his possession without action, before it becomes a law with- 
out his approval, had been passed, before allowing it to come 
in. To this end it is at least alleged that they arranged with 
the secretary of state, through whom the Governor ordinarily 
communicates with the Legislature, that he should be conven- 
iently absent from the state house during the afternoon. 

Upon the coming in of the House at two o'clock in the after- 
noon of the day in question, Mr, Sinclair of Bethlehem pre- 
sented a document which he stated to be a message from the 
Governor. The speaker declined to receive it, except by direc- 
tion of the House, declaring that it was not presented through 
the proper medium, and directed the doorkeeper to return it 
to Mr. Sinclair. Mr. Sinclair then started to read the message 
to the House ; but the speaker ruled him out of order, declaring 
that the reading could only proceed by vote of the House. 

Mr. Bingham hereupon appealed from the speaker's ruling. 
He declared that the gentleman from Bethlehem had a right to 
make remarks as preliminary to a motion, and a right to read 
the document as a part of his remarks. This matter, he de- 
clared, was one of transcendent importance. Here was an at- 
tempt to trample upon the constitutional rights of the people — 
an attempt by one branch of the government to trample upon 
another branch. Here was an attempt which upon its face 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 141 

seemed nothing more nor less than revolution; an attempt to 
prevent the Governor from formally returning, in accordance 
with his constitutional right, a bill to the House. He appealed 
to every patriotic member to aid in preserving the Constitu- 
tion by refusing to sustain the arbitrary action of the speaker. 
Once cut loose from the Constitution and where are we? he 
asked. Under the domination of the strongest arm, which may 
belong to the worst man in the country ! 

Mr. Sawyer of Nashua addressed the House, declaring that 
the bill had already become a law by limitation, the five days 
during which the bill might be retained having already ex- 
pired. 

Mr. Little of Manchester claimed that the limit had not been 
passed, since the bill went to the Governor on Thursday, and 
Sunday and Monday were not legislative days and could not be 
included in the reckoning. 

Protracted debate ensued and the greatest disorder and con- 
fusion prevailed. Mr. Sinclair again got the floor, and went on 
to say that the secretary of state had absented himself, or at 
least could not be found, and unless some member could present 
the message there could be no medium of communication between 
the Governor and the House. He said he held a written order 
to the secretary of state, or deputy secretary, to present the 
message. It contains a statement by the Governor, said he, that 
he (the Governor) had sent to the House a message vetoing the 
soldiers voting bill, and that he understood the House refused 
to receive it, and requests the secretary or deputy secretary to 
present it. The deputy secretary declares that he has not taken 
the oath of office this year (he was acting as clerk of the 
House) and cannot present it. It is well underetood that the 
time in which the message can be presented has nearly expired. 
He was not aware, he said, that any particular channel of com- 
munication was prescribed, and he declared the speaker's course 
as revolutionary, and designed to thwart the constitutional 
power of the Governor — of a coordinate branch of the govern- 
ment. 

Mr. Bingham called the attention of the House to the consti- 
tutional provisions relating to the veto power, and contended 



142 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

that no channel was prescribed through which the Governor 
should return the bill, either by the Constitution or by the rules 
of the Legislature. The channel is left to his judgment and he, 
alone, is responsible for it. He may select such as he chooses, 
and it is the duty of the House to receive the message. He de- 
fied any man to controvert this position, and said if the House 
should override it, it would override the Constitution of the 
state and erect the standard of revolution. For members to 
reject it was to violate their oaths. Pause here, before it is too 
late, he implored. Remember that the country stands on the 
very borders of an abyss. It needs all our care and efforts 
to rescue it from the perdition into which we are fast sinking ! 

It seems that the secretary of state, Allen Tenny*, had re- 
fused to present the document without a written order from the 
governor, and that he had been "spirited" out of the way before 
such order could be secured. The object of the minority then 
was to hold the floor and prevent an adjournment, w^hich the 
majority were planning to bring about, till the secretary could 
be found and the message be formally presented by him to the 
speaker. Mr. Sinclair again spoke at length and then Samuel 
B. Page of Warren got the floor and held it for a long time, 
replying good-naturedly to all sorts of questions, but refusing 
to yield to any one. He finally concluded and Mr. Bingham 
again got the floor, when, at about half past five o'clock, the 
secretary of state, who had at last been found, appeared in 
the hall with the Governor's message, which he was instructed 
to deliver, but which he got no opportunity to do, through the 



*Allen Tenny, son of Rev. Erdix and Mary Lathami (Kendrick) 
Tenny, was born in Lyme, N. H., March 29, 1833. He fitted for college 
at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, and srraduated from Middlebury 
in 185G. He taught for a time in Lyndon, Vt., and Concord, N. H. In 
1859 he was made deputy secretary of state, and in 1861 was chosen 
secretary, serving till 1865, when he declined further service, and went 
to the Albany (N. Y.) law school, graduating in 1866. Pursuing his 
studies further, he was admitted to the bar of Connecticut in ISGS and 
engaged in practice in Norwich, that state, where he continued nearly 
thirty years. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Represen- 
tatives in 1873 and of the State Senate in 1874, being president pro 
tern of that body. He was corporation counsel for the City of Norwich 
from 1874 till 1883, and a United States commissioner for several years. 
He retired from practice some years ago and removed to Providence, 
R. L, to look after business interests. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 143 

continuance of debate, and the speaker's apparent inclination 
to hinder rather than facilitate such delivery 

At about 6 o'clock, Mr. Saunders of Nashua got in the long 
contemplated motion to adjourn. The yeas and nays being 
demanded on this motion the roll call proceeded under great 
difficulty. ]\Ien were on their feet in all parts of the hall shout- 
ing and gesticulating, opposing party leaders hurling defiance 
at each other with every indication of actual violence impending. 
The only way in which the vote could be taken was by the pass- 
ing of members before the clerk as their names were called and 
the shouting of their response in his ears. The call was not con- 
eluded until 7 'clock, w^hen the result showed a majority in the 
affirmative and the House stood adjourned. The speaker had 
not received the veto message, but the secretary had finally 
dropped it on his table at about 6.45 o'clock. 

At the opening of the House session, the following day, Mr. 
Clarke of Manchester, offered a resolution which was finally 
adopted, providing that a committee of seven be appointed by 
the speaker to inquire and report whether or not the soldiers 
voting bill had become a law without the approval of the gov- 
ernor , by constitutional limitation. This committee, as ap- 
pointed, consisted of Messrs. Barton of Newport, Clarke of Man- 
chester, Parker of Merrimack, Hackett of Portsmouth, Pitman 
of Bartlett, Wyatt of Dover and Page of Thornton. 

Mr. Bingham then moved that the paper from His Excellency, 
the Governor, placed on the speaker's table the previous day, 
by Allen Tenny, be now read for the information of the House, 
but Mr, Adams of Manchester thereupon interjected a call for 
the general order. Mr. Bingham then moved the suspension of the 
rules, so that his motion might be in order at that time, but, a 
call of the roll being demanded, the motion was lost, 102 to 145. 
A bitter controversy ensued during which Mr. Bingham used 
plain and emphatic language in denouncing what he character- 
ized as the revolutionary course pursued by the House and 
speaker in the afternoon previous. 

In the afternoon the majority of the special committee re- 
ported, declaring that the act in question had become a law, as 
claimed by the majority leaders. Messrs. Pitman and Page pre- 



144 HARRY BiyGHAM MEMORIAL. 

sented a minority report, taking the opposite position, but the 
House, by practically a partisan majority, adopted the majority 
report. The question ultimately went to the Supreme Court, 
■which had finally decided the act constitutional and that body 
also decided it to be law, the constitutional limit having been 
passed, in any event, in the estimation of the judges, after its 
legal delivery to the governor, and before it was received in the 
House. 

"While there was much excitement over the passage of this act, 
it may be noted that similar measures were enacted by the legis- 
latures of most northern states, before the close of the war, and 
in most cases the same were held constitutional by the courts, 
though the Supreme Court of Michigan, with but one dissenting 
opinion, decided the act passed by the Legislature of that state, 
providing for the voting of the soldiers in the field, to be uncon- 
stitutional, Judge Cooley joining in the decision. 

In 1S65 ^Ir. Bingham and Dr. Charles M. Tuttle were chosen 
as the representatives from Littleton, but the latter failed to take 
his seat. The House organized by the choice of Austin F. Pike* 
of Franklin as speaker, who received 196 votes to 105 for Asa P. 
Cate of Xorthfield, the Democratic candidate. Samuel D. Lord 
of Manchester was made clerk and Charles B. Shackford of 
Conway, assistant. The members of the judiciary committee 
were : Wheeler of Dover, L'pham of Concord, Bingham of Little- 
ton, Smith of "Wentworth, Small of Newmarket, Bean of Sand- 
wich, Bowers of Newport, Little of Manchester, Conner of 
Exeter and Albee of Winchester. The special committee on 



♦Austin F. Pike, a native of the town of Hebron, born October 16, 
1819, died at Franklin, October S, 1SS6. He attended the academies at 
Plymouth and at Newbury, Vt., and studied law with Hon. George W. 
Nesmith, at Franklin, with whom he subsequently formed a partner- 
ship, which continued until the elevation of Mr. Nesmith to the bench. 
He was very successful in his profession and took high rank as an advo- 
vate. He represented Franklin in the LfCgislature in 1S50 and 1S52, 
served in the State Senate in 1S57 and 185S, being president the latter 
year, and was again in the House in 1S65 and 1866, serving both years 
as speaker. He was an earnest Republican and a delegate to the first 
National Convention of the party in 1856. He served in the Forty-third 
Congress from the old Second District in 1S73 and 1874, his New Hamp- 
shire colleagues being William B. Small of Newmarket and Hosea W. 
Parker of Claremont, and was chosen United States senator in 1883, 
dying in the middle of his term. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 145 

national affairs, upon which Mr. Bingham also sen-ed, was some- 
what different, but even stronger in its make-up. It included 
Blaisdell of Hanover, Upham of Concord, Sawyer of Nashua, 
Bingham of Littleton, Quiney of Rumney, Wheeler of Dover, 
Small of Newmarket, Stearns of Rindge, Stevens of Portsmouth 
and Hibbard of Laconia. It may be noted that, the work of 
rebuilding the state house being in progress at the time, the 
legislative session was held in the city and county building, the 
House being accommodated in the city hall, on the lower floor, 
and the Senate in the court room above. 

This was largely a working session and the judiciary com- 
mittee, as usual, carried the main burden, Mr. Bingham doing 
his full share of the work. It may be added that the committee, 
this year, ranked above the average in point of ability, while the 
judgment of no member carried greater weight, in questions of 
practical moment, than that of Mr. Bingham. 

This session was devoid of partisan controversy, until near the 
close, when the question of the ratification of the Thirteenth 
Amendment to the Federal Constitution, submitted by Congress 
to the legislatures of the several states, came up for considera- 
tion. A majority' report from the committee on national affairs, 
in the form of a joint resolution ratifying the amendment had 
been presented, on June 22, read once and ordered to a second 
reading. A minority report, signed by Mr. Bingham and :SIt. 
Hibbard of Laconia, was subsequently presented, as follows : 

State of New Hampshire, 

House of Representatives, June Session, 1865. 

The undersigned, a minority of the committee on national 
affairs, to whom was referred the matter of ratifying the pro- 
posed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, dis- 
senting from the report of the majority of the said committee, 
present the following considerations as among the reasons which 
compel their dissent : namely, 

1. Because the extraordinary- events of the last four years have 
left the southern portion of the Union in such an unsettled con- 
dition that any proper action there, at the present time, upon this 
or any other amendment to the Constitution, is utterly impossi- 
ble ; and because the other causes still continue to bias, agitate 
and inflame the public mind of every portion of the L^nion to such 
an extent that the fair, impartial and dispassionate consideration 

10 



146 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

which a free people ought always to give to changes in their 
fundamental laws, cannot now be had. 

2. Because the proposed amendment is not an amendment 
authorized by the Constitution, but is revolutionary in its 
character. 

3. Because, in our belief, the future welfare of the people 
of the United States can be secured only by maintaining and pre- 
serving inviolate the authority of the States over all matters of 
a local and domestic character, and inasmuch as the relation 
between master and servant is a matter of a nature purely local 
and domestic, the adoption of this amendment would obliterate 
the great line of demarcation between federal and state author- 
ity, lead to the absorption of every reserved right of the states, 
and the ultimate consolidation of all power in the hands of the 
national government. 

Harry Bingham, 

E. A. HiBBARD, 

Minority of the Committee on National Affairs. 

On the afternoon of June 27, the subject came up in the 
House for debate. Mr. Upham* of Concord opened the dis- 
cussion with a lengthy speech in favor of ratification; and was 
followed by Mr. Quincyt of Rumney (a Democrat who had 
broken away from his party upon this and most other questions 



*Nathaniel Gookin Upham, horn in Deerfield, January 8, 1801, died in 
Concord, December 11, 1869. He was a son of Hon. Nathaniel and 
Judith (Cogswell) Upham, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 
1820 at the remarkably early age of nineteen years. He studied law 
with David Parker, Jr., and, after admission to the bar, located in 
practice at Bristol, but removed to Concord in 1829, where he con- 
tinued. He soon gained distinction and when 32 years of age, in 1833, 
was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court, serving ten years, when 
he resigned to become superintendent of the Concord Railroad of which 
corporation he was afterward made president. He was a delegate in 
the Constitutional Convention of 1850, and a commissioner to adjudi- 
cate the claims of citizens of the United States and Great Britain in 
1853, and again between citizens of the United States and New Grenada 
in 1862. Politically he was a Democrat till 1861, when he joined the 
Republican party. 

tSamuel H. Quincy, a prominent merchant at Rumney, was a native 
of that town, a son of Hon. Josiah Quincy who was a distinguished 
lawyer, leading Democratic politician and the first president of the 
Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad. He was educated at Brown Uni- 
versity. He was postmaster at Rumney for a time and represented the 
town in the Legislature in 1864 and 1865. He subsequently removed to 
Lancaster, Mass., where he served many years on the school board and 
as a member of the board of registers. He died December 12, 1893. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 147 

growing out of the war), upon the same side. Mr. Sturoc* 
of Sunapee spoke earnestly against the amendment and in 
support of the minority report. The debate was not con- 
cluded that afternoon, but went over till the next day when 
Mr. Bowlesf of Manchester and Mr. SmallJ of Newmarket 
spoke in support of the amendment, and at an evening session 
Mr. Bingham spoke for two hours in opposition, making the 
longest speech of the session, and was followed on the same side 
by Mr. Smith of Wentworth in a strong speech occupying an 
hour in the delivery. 

It is unfortunate that a meagre newspaper abstract is all that 
is preserved of this, as of most of Mr. Bingham's speeches in the 
Legislature, while even that much cannot be had of most of his 
arguments before courts and juries. The following abstract, 
crudely covering some of the main points of his speech on this 



*William C. Sturoc was a native of Scotland, born November 4, 1822, 
at Arbroath in Forfarshire. He came to America in 1850, and made his 
home in Sunapee, being attracted by the romantic lal^e and mountain 
scenery of the region, so similar to that of his native land. Meeting 
with the late Hon. Edmund Burke, he was induced by him to fit himself 
for the legal profession, and pursued the study of law in Mr. Burke's 
office at Newport. He was admitted to the bar in 1855, and located 
in Sunapee, where he continued, combining legal practice with the 
pursuit of agriculture and the "Muses." He wrote many poems — some 
of more than ordinary merit. He earnestly espoused the principles of 
the Democratic party, and was a campaign speaker whose services were 
in much demand. He served efficiently as a representative from Suna- 
pee in 1865, 1866, 1867 and 1868, participating frequently in the debates. 
He lived in retirement and study for many years previous to his death. 
May 31, 1903. 

tRev. Benjamin F. Bowles, a clergyman of the Universalist faith, 
was born in Portsmouth, March 4, 1824, son of Thomas and Abiah 
(Bradley) Bowles. He was educated in the literary and theological 
departments of Clinton Liberal Institute, New York, and ordained as 
pastor of the Second Universalist Church, at Salem, Mass., July 12, 
1848. He held several pastorates, and was located in that at Man- 
chester from 1860 to 1866, serving as chaplain of the House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1864. and as a member of that body in 1865. His last 
pastorate was at Abiugton, Mass., where he died, January 1, 1892. 

IWilliam B. Small, born in Limington, Me., May 17, 1817, died at 
Newmarket, N. H., April 7, 1878. He was educated at Effingham 
Academy, and engaged in teaching at Exeter where he studied law 
with Bell & Tuck, and after admission to the bar located at Newmarket, 
where he succeeded to the practice of W. W. Stickuey, who had removed 
to Exeter. He established a reputation as a careful and successful 
lawyer. He engaged in political life as a Republican, serving as a 
representative in the Legislature in 1865, as a state senator, and a 
member of Congress from 1873 to 1875. 



148 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

occasion is from a daily newspaper report of the House 
proceedings : 

Mr. Bingham, of Littleton, said the principles announced in 
the minority report went back even of the organization of this 
government and related to the government of the colonies, and 
that the principles announced yesterday by the gentleman from 
Concord were new, never announced by any party in this coun- 
try until now. It seemed to him a very great piece of assurance 
for any man to come in here and characterize such old doctrines 
as new, and such new doctrines as old. He deemed it peculiarly 
appropriate, at the present time, and under present circum- 
stances that such a speech as was made today by the gentleman 
from Manchester (Mr. Bowles) should be made. He believed 
that it was precisely the kind of talk that had led the public mind 
to ignore the principles of the fathers, and rush wildly into 
revolution. He (Mr. Bowles) had said it was our duty to carry 
out our conscientious convictions in our political action. That is, 
whatever any man conscientiously believed to be wrong, he must 
annihilate, if he can. This idea was at war with the fundamental 
principle of our institutions. Each man had his conscientious 
convictions, and under the Constitution, each man was entitled 
to enjoy those convictions, except only that he did not injure his 
neighbor. The gentleman's argument was precisely the argu- 
ment on which all the religious persecutions of history had been 
based. The promoters of the Spanish Inquisition, and the 
authors of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, believed that heresy 
was wicked and damnable, and of the devil, and they would kick 
it to the devil. He (Mr. Bowles) said the institution of slavery 
was immoral, and the orthodox said precisely the same thing 
of what he understood was the religious creed of the gentleman. 
While he thought slavery immoral, the people of other states 
thought it was a moral institution, even a divine institution. 
It was, then, a matter of difference, so far as conscience was 
concerned. The people of the South were not without argument ; 
they referred to the Bible, and they said, "See this," and "See 
that ' ' ; and they had as much right to their opinions as the gen- 
tleman had to his. 

The gentleman from Newmarket, in replying to his associates, 
went along very smoothly, for he had the law all on his side. 
But he found a hard spot to get over, when he came to justify 
the vote he proposed to give, and he had to assign precisely the 
same reasons that were given by the gentleman from Manchester 
and the gentleman from Concord. It had always been contended 
by everybody that slavery was a local matter, and had no exist- 
,ence in any state except by reason of having been established 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 149 

there. When the gentleman from Newmarket said that slavery 
was a national matter, he contradicted the understanding that 
had been entertained by everybody ever since the formation of 
the government. 

His (Mr. Bingham's) position was, that this contemplated 
lamendment was revolutionary in its character, and could not be 
justified by any action of any political party, and found no sup- 
port in the Constitution. In his opinion, this amendment stood 
in reference to the Constitution, precisely as the Southern doc- 
trine of secession did. That doctrine was revolutionary, and so 
was this attempted amendment; neither of them could be justi- 
fied, except on the principles that justified revolution. 

He was aware that the feelings growing out of the late rebellion 
had given an impetus to the popular mind, which, by the influ- 
ences of the war, and by such considerations as had been urged 
by the gentleman from Manchester, had been brought to the 
point where it was ready for revolution. It was for the House, 
as representatives of the people, to consider this matter delib- 
erately and calmly. It was said that the agitation which was 
(Commenced over twenty-five or thirty years ago, of the slavery 
question, had at last culminated in the freedom of the negro, 
under the war power, and that the negroes were now all Ameri- 
can citizens. This negro race had never manifested an intelligent 
appreciation of freedom, or any rational desire for it, and yet 
it seemed that there was nothing so beautiful or desirable to the 
popular mind as the freedom of the negro, and the people seemed 
ready to compass Heaven and earth to accomplish it, as if that 
was the thing to do away with all the wrongs in the world and 
bring about the millennium. 

He ascribed this idea to the fact that, for the last ten or 
fifteen years, the people had listened, at least one day in the 
week, to just such language, from persons whose doctrines they 
believed they were bound to swallow, as the House had listened 
to today. To him the idea of negro freedom was a delusion and 
a snare. The people might dissolve the bonds between the master 
and the slave, but they could not change the nature of the negro. 
His "fleecy locks and black complexion" would still remain. 
His servile nature and degraded intellect would still remain. 
God made the negro, and it was not in the power of men, how- 
ever unitedly or loudly they might call for it, to change the 
negro from what God made him. It was not for the people to 
criticise God, or interfere with the punishment he had decreed 
for certain classes or races. If He had said: "Cursed be 
Canaan; a servant of servant shall he be to his brethren," and if 
that meant the African race, it was not for men to interfere 
with the ordinances of God's providence, nor with the punish- 



150 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ments that He may have decreed to this race or that. He re- 
garded this interference with the condition of the negro as par- 
ticularly unfortunate for that race. He defied anyone to point 
out a race of negro people, that ever existed, that had so many 
material comforts as the negroes of the Southern states. He 
believed that proved that the condition of the negro there was 
the best condition for him. But if the voice of the people had 
decreed that these bonds should be broken, then they must be, 
however disastrous it might be to the negroes, to the masters, or 
to the nation itself. They had been producers, and if they 
become vagabonds, paupers and criminals, they would become a 
tax upon the nation, first in the loss of the fruits of their labor, 
and next, by the cost of their support in vagabondism. He 
believed that many of these people, in the destitution, sickness 
and suffering which would result from this change in their con- 
dition, would sigh, but sigh in vain, for the comforts of their old 
Kentucky or Virginia homes. 

The people of the North had been praying and weeping over 
an ideal being. They were now to see the negro as he is — a being 
servile in nature, utterly improvident, incapable of self-denial, 
and incapable of being so instructed that he will be a "law unto 
himself." He believed that the people were in danger of com- 
mitting suicide in their anxiety for the welfare of the negro, 
and of surrendering that civil liberty, the maintenance of which 
was so important, not only to the people of this country, but 
to the human race. 

He objected to the amendment on the ground that, just 
emerging as we were from a cruel war, the time was not favor- 
able for the consideration of such a question. Another reason 
was that the party now in power was not a Union party. Many 
of the men who controlled that party were men who had been 
opponents of the Union, and some of them had said, "Let the 
Union slide. ' ' Another reason for not acting on the amendment 
now was the condition of the South, which was without a govern- 
ment of any kind. Why not, he asked, wait until the South was 
so far settled that they could all come together and act on the 
amendment, in the spirit in which the fathers acted? 

The next point presented by Mr. Bingham was that we had 
no constitutional power to make the amendment; that three 
quarters of the states had not the power, under the Constitution, 
to amend that instrument in this particular, against the dissent 
of any of the remaining one quarter. He maintained the doc- 
trine that the power of amendment granted by the Constitution 
was limited to modifications and changes in regard to the powers 
that were granted to the general government by that instrument, 
and did not extend to taking from the states the powers which 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 151 

by that instrument were reserved to them. He referred to the 
history of the country, to show that the opinion at the time of the 
formation of the Constitution was that the general government 
should be supreme in all matters delegated to it, leaving the 
states soveign in all matters which were reserved to them. The 
seventh article of the Bill of Rights of New Hampshire, declared 
the same doctrine In 1861, Congress resolved that the general 
government had no right to legislate on slavery, that the people 
who did not believe this doctrine were an insignificant minority. 
The first inaugural of President Lincoln was also cited as setting 
forth the same principle. But supposing this power to exist, the 
speaker maintained that it was not desirable to exercise it. If 
this barrier was once broken down, it would open the way for the 
destruction of all state rights. To show that this danger was 
not a mere chimera, he referred to the declaration of the Gov- 
ernor in his inaugural address, that the general government 
should provide suffrage for the negro, although the power to de- 
termine who should vote had always been reserved to the state. 
The Governor has also declared that they ought not to rest satis- 
fied until free schools and free churches were established all 
over the country. Yet these were matters within the exclusive 
jurisdiction of the states. 

These propositions indicated the tendency of the time. If this 
amendment was adopted, it would lead to a consolidation of 
power in the general government that would make it as omnipo- 
tent as the Parliament of Great Britain. Unless some check was 
put upon the tendency, that result would inevitably follow. It 
was very pleasant for Massachusetts now to have her views 
carried out, but would she be equally well pleased when the 
views of South Carolina or some other state were forced upon 
her? He predicted that Massachusetts in ten years, if this 
amendment was adopted, would be as clamorous for state rights 
as she was in 1812, when she refused to furnish her quota of 
troops in the war with Great Britain. Wise men would look 
ahead. He regarded the present crisis as the most important in 
which the country has been placed since the formation of the 
Constitution, if not the most important that had ever existed. 
Recent events had shown that our government was strong enough 
for any emergency, and he thought that every argument that 
was presented for a change in those principles of government 
which had been so successful in their operation should be care- 
fully scrutinized, lest the liberties of the people should be 
destroyed. 

It had been asserted that the object of the war was to abolish 
slavery, but he contended that the object of the war was to 
maintain the Constitution and preserve the Union and the 



152 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

supremacy of the laws. (Applause.) He believed that, if we 
could have statesmanship in the cabinet equal to the valor of our 
soldiers in the field, the time was not far distant when all the 
states would again be united, and the old condition of harmony 
and prosperity restored. 

The majority report w^as adopted by the House, and the rati- 
fication of the amendment voted at the forenoon session of June 
29, by a vote of 216 to 97, the Republican members voting solidly 
for it, and most of the Democrats against it. 

On June 30, the day of final adjournment, the conmiittee on 
national affairs reported a series of resolutions. Messrs. Bing- 
ham and Hibbard failed to agree with the balance of the com- 
mittee and presented the following 

Minority Report : 

The undersigned, a minority of the committee on national 
affairs, to whom was referred so much of the message of His 
Excellency, the Governor, as relates to national affairs, have 
considered the same, and ask leave to report the accompanying 
resolutions, and recommend their passage. 

Harry Bingham, 
E. A. Hibbard. 

Resolved, That we hail with profound pleasure the peace 
which closes the bloody strife of the last four years, and warmly 
welcome to their homes the brave survivors of the war, with many 
tears for their less fortunate but equally brave comrades, who 
now sleep in death, and that we proft'er our kindest regards, and 
pledge to them our steadfast friendship in the future. 

Resolved, That the government of the United States is of a 
limited character, and is confined to the exercise of powers ex- 
pressly granted by the Constitution, and such as may be proper 
for carrying the granted powers into full execution, and that 
powers not granted or necessarily implied, are reserved to the 
states respectively, and to the people. 

Resolved, That the state governments should be held secure 
in their reserved rights, and the general government sustained 
in its constitutional powers, and that the Union should be revered 
and watched over as the palladium of our liberties. 

Resolved, That the federal and state governments are parts 
of our system, alike necessary for the common prosperity, peace 
and security, and ought to be regarded alike with a cordial, 
habitual and immovable attachment. Respect for the authority 
of each, and acquiescence in the just constitutional measures of 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 153 

each, are duties required by the plainest considerations of 
national, state and individual welfare. 

Resolved, That upon the return of peace and submission to the 
laws there can be nothing to interfere with the supremacy of the 
civil authority, and military trials for civil offenses cease to have 
any warrant or justification. 

Resolved, That those states which have been in rebellion and 
have now submitted to the Constitution and the laws, ought to 
be permitted to resume their original rights as states in the 
Union; that punishments ought to be inflicted and pardons 
granted, according as one or the other will best serve to pave 
the way for the full and perfect restoration of all the states to 
their original rights and position in the Union; that any inter- 
ference by federal authority with matters and things by the 
Consitution subject exclusively to the control of the states, 
being illegal, is without any justification whatsoever. 

Resolved, That we hope and trust that the present national 
executive is endowed with strength and wisdom equal to the 
magnitude and difficulty of the work now before him; that we 
have reason to believe, and do believe, that the principles set 
forth in the foregoing resolutions are the principles by which 
he proposes to be guided in the performance of that work, and so 
believing, we hereby pledge to him our earnest sympathy and 
steadfast support. 

Mr. Bingham moved to substitute the minority for the majority 
report, but the motion was lost, 60 to 151, and the majority 
report was adopted. 

Mr. McNeil* of Hillsborough moved to add the following 
to the majority report : 

Resolved, That we cordially and earnestly endorse the declara- 
tion of the chief executive of this nation that "the states that 
have been in rebellion are still states, or, in other words, that the 
governments of those states were only in abeyance, and that 
when the rebellion was suppressed, and the laws and the Con- 
stitution revived, neither the president nor Congress has any 

*CoI. John McNeil, a son of Gen. Solomon and Nancy M. (Pierce) 
McNeil, was born in Hillsborough, November 6, 1822. He was a nephew 
of President Franklin Pierce, and served as an inspector in the Boston 
custom house during the administration of the latter, and that of 
President Buchanan. Resuming his residence in Hillsborough, he repre- 
sented that town in the Legislature in 1864 and 1865. He later removed 
to Concord where he was a companion of the ex-president, but after his 
death, removed to Chelmsford, Mass. He was a cultivated gentleman, of 
refined manner and scholarly tastes. He died at Winchester, Mass., 
April 7, 1888. 



164 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

authority to prescribe the qualification of electors of those 
states." 

A great deal of excitement was precipitated by the presenta- 
tion of this resolution and a sharp debate followed, remarks in 
opposition being made by Messrs. Wheeler, Stearns, Flint, Bean, 
Upham and Blaisdell, while it was earnestly supported by 
Messrs. Bingham, Smith, Gate and Page. It was rejected by a 
vote of 65 to 144. 

At the close of the session on the following day, July 1, Mr, 
Bingham, as the leader of the minority, being among those who 
supported the customary resolution of thanks to the speaker, 
spoke briefly, as follows: 

So far as my own judgment is concerned, I cheerfully agree 
to the resolution now before the House. It is certainly true 
that the discharge of the duties of the office of speaker of a 
legislative body is no light and trifling task. The responsibility 
resting upon the presiding officer for the proper discharge of 
his duties is great. In the first place, it is his duty as the pre- 
siding officer, so far as his official action is concerned, to know 
no party and no clique in the House. All he has to do is to 
enforce the will of the House, and the will of the House as ex- 
pressed in its written rules, and as it may be expressed by the 
votes rendered in accordance with its written rules. 

Any person who is able to put himself into that state of fair- 
ness and impartiality that he is able to discharge this duty 
agreeably to the requirements of the position is obliged to have 
a mind capable of appreciating what justice is and to have the 
rules before him, and observe them strictly. 

Unless he do this, and if he permits himself to go wandering 
off with a desire to please this party or that party, this clique 
or that clique, he will most certainly fail to discharge the duties 
required of him. 

It is with great pleasure that I feel authorized to say, so far 
as my judgment goes, that our speaker, during the present ses- 
sion, has been able to come up to the standard of what a presid- 
ing officer should be, as I consider that standard to exist. 

Therefore, it is with the greatest pleasure that I announce 
my purpose to vote for the resolution. 

After five successive years of service in the Legislature — 
1865 being the last — Mr. Bingham was not again elected till 
1868, and then only as an additional representative, two others 
having been chosen, upon the assumption that the town had 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 155 

ratable polls enough to entitle it to three members of the House, 
under the constitutional provision as it then existed. Partisan 
feeling was still running high and the Republican leaders in the 
town threatened to contest his right to a seat should he attempt 
to take it. With an overwhelming Republican majority in the 
House, and the usual course of such a majority in mind, whenever 
a contest was made, Mr. Bingham deemed it inexpedient to 
engage in any controversy over the matter, especially as he then 
held the office of United States treasury agent, by appointment 
of President Johnson, and was also purposing to attend the 
Democratic National Convention, then about to be held, and at 
which he was subsequently selected as the New Hampshire mem- 
ber of the Democratic National Committee. He, therefore, 
failed to qualify as a member that year, or to make any attempt 
in that direction ; but devoted himself to the service of his party 
in other directions, so far as the demands of his profession 
would permit. 

It was not until 1871 that Mr. Bingham was again engaged in 
legislative service. In that year he commenced a period of con- 
tinuous service in the House, covering eleven years, being elected 
by the people of Littleton at each successive election from 1871 
to 1880, inclusive, at the latter for the biennial session opening 
in June, 1881. 

In 1871 he had as his colleagues in the House, from Littleton, 
Col. Cyrus Eastman and Ellery D. Dunn. This was the first 
year, after their accession to power in 1855, that the Republicans 
failed to control the state government. There had been no 
choice of governor at the March election. Six Democratic and 
five Republican state senators had been chosen and there was a 
failure to elect in the first district, no candidate having a 
majority of the votes cast. Moreover, the senator-elect in the 
tenth district — Hon. Samuel P. Thrasher of Plainfield — had 
died after the election and before the meeting of the Legislature, 
so there were two senatorial vacancies to be filled by ballot in 
the legislative joint convention as well as a Governor to be 
chosen. Everything, therefore, depended upon the control of the 
House of Representatives, in which neither the Democrats nor 
Republicans had a straight majority, the balance of power being 



156 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

held by a few men elected as ''Labor Keformers," wMch party 
had a ticket in the field at the March election and cast 760- votes 
for governor. These "Labor Reformers" were, mostly, men who 
had broken away from the Republican party, for some reason 
or other, and who might naturally be expected to ally themselves 
more readily with the opposition than with their former asso- 
ciates. Conferences were held between representative Democrats 
and Labor Reformers and a plan of union arranged, by which, 
although the latter got the lion 's share, considering their relative 
strength, Republican discomfiture was insured. 

The Legislature convened on June 6, the representatives-elect 
being called to order by the clerk of the preceding House, 
Josiah H. Benton, Jr., and the first action taken being the elec- 
tion of Hon. George "W. Nesmith of Franklin as temporary 
chairman, upon Mr. Bingham's motion. The House then pro- 
ceeded to ballot for speaker, with the result that James O. 
Adams of Manchester, Republican candidate, received 162 votes, 
and William H. Gove* of Weare, Labor Reformer, who was the 
Democratic candidate, had 164, and was elected. 

Immediately after the speaker-elect had taken the oath of 
office, assumed the chair and briefly addressed the House, Mr. 
Bingham, as the recognized leader on the Democratic side, offered 
the following resolution, moving its passage and calling for the 
yeas and nays on the question : 

Resolved, That James R. Jackson of Littleton be elected clerk, 
and James H. Colbath of Barnstead assistant clerk for the 
ensuing year. 

Mr. Fowler of Concord, who with Wadleigh of Milford 



*William Hazelton Gove, born iu Weare, July 10, 1S17, died there 
March 1, 1876. He was educated in the common school, but himself 
engaged in teaching, and for a time studied law. He soon became 
interested in the anti-slavery cause, and became a public speaker in its 
advocacy, attaining celebrity for his forceful eloquence. He was a 
member of the first National Convention of the Free Soil party at 
Buffalo, N. Y., in 1848. He represented the town of Weare in the Legis- 
lature in 1851, 1852 and 1855, and acted with the Republican party from 
its organization. He was postmaster at Weare under Presidents Lin- 
coln and Johnson, but became dissatisfied with the party and was active 
in the "Labor Reform" movement of 1871. He was a delegate to the 
National Liberal Republican Convention in 1872, and a Democratic 
state senator in 1873 and 1874. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 157 

divided the Republican leadership, moved to amend by striking 
out all after the word "Resolved," and inserting "That the 
House do now proceed by ballot to the choice of a clerk." 

With such a narrow margin of majority, and that made up by 
such a combination, the Democratic leaders, with Mr. Bingham 
at their head, did not propose to take the risk of a secret vote. 
They proposed to fight the matter out in the open, and elect the 
clerk and assistant clerk in the customary way — by resolution ; 
but the Republicans resorted to a protracted course of "filli- 
bustering" to delay action and prevent a vote, and it was not 
until the afternoon of the following day that the House, after 
every expedient that the minority leaders could devise had been 
resorted to for obstruction and delay, was finally organized and 
ready for work. Even then the defeated party was unwilling 
to permit the work of the session to proceed without obstruction, 
and another season of fillibustering, characterized by all sorts 
of dilatory motions and roll calls, designed simply for the con- 
sumption of time, was indulged in to delay the meeting of the 
two branches of the Legislature in joint convention for filling 
the senatorial vacancies and canvassing the vote for governor, so 
that it was not until Saturday, or the fourth day of the session, 
that such convention was held; nor was it until the senatorial 
vacancies were filled that the Senate itself effected a permanent 
organization, the ten surviving senators elected by the people 
being evenly divided between the two leading parties. These 
vacanacies were filled by the choice of Capt. Daniel Marcy of 
Portsmouth, the Democratic candidate for the First District, 
and Alvah Smith of Lempster, who had received four votes at 
the polls, as the candidate of the Labor Reformers, in the Tenth 
District, and was supported by the Democrats in the Legislature 
in preference to Albina Hall of Grantham, the Republican 
nominee, especially in view of the fact that he had been inter- 
viewed in the Democratic interest, and had given it to be under- 
stood, at least, that in case of his election by Democratic votes he 
would be found acting with the Democratic party in the Legis- 
lature. 

James A. Weston, of Manchester, who had received 34,799 
votes at the polls, was elected governor by the convention, by a 



158 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

vote of 167 to 159 for James Pike of South. Newmarket, who had 
33,892 votes at the polls. 

Beyond the control of the organization of the two branches 
of the Legislature, and the election of governor, however, the 
Democrats were unable to accomplish anything during the ses- 
sion. The general removal of state officials and reorganization 
of the judiciary, that had been planned, was not carried out, 
from the fact that at the opening of the second week of the 
session, his former associates in the Republican party got control 
of Senator Smith, and beyond voting for the removal of one or 
two county officials, he persistently refused to cooperate with 
the men by whom he had been elected in carrying out their pro- 
posed plans of ' ' reform. ' ' 

It is proper to say that it was against Mr. Bingham's judgment 
that any arrangement was made or attempted with Mr. Smith, 
or that he was chosen as senator at all, and it was only at the 
earnest solicitation of party associates that he refrained from 
active opposition, in the convention, to an election of senator to 
fill the Tenth District vacancy at the time when it was pro- 
ceeded with. It was his view that there was sufficient ground for 
doubt, as to the eligibility of Mr. Smith under the Constitution 
to warrant formal inquiry at least, and that, having filled the 
First District vacancy and secured an actual and positive 
majority, the safest and most politic course for the Democrats to 
pursue was to go ahead with the majority assured, without taking 
any chances Avith an uncertain quantity, such as the election of 
Mr. Smith would introduce into the situation, notwithstanding 
any promises, express or implied, which he might have made in 
the course of the negotiations which had been carried on with 
him, or which, at all events, were understood to have been made. 
The outcome proved Mr. Bingham's judgment to have been 
sound, and his view as to the proper course to pursue in order 
to insure partisan advantage for the Democracy to have been 
correct. The control over Senator Smith, eventuallj^ secured by 
the Republican leaders, left the Senate again evenly balanced 
on partisan questions, and nothing of any importance in any 
direction was done during the session. 

Mr. Bingham was chairman of the judiciary committee of the 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 159 

House, at this session, as a matter of course, his associates being 
Messrs. Chase of Northfield, Nesmith of Franklin, Fowler of 
Concord, Burrows of Plymouth, Page of Concord, Wadleigh 
of Milford, Hackett (William H.) of Portsmouth, Cogs- 
well of Gilmanton and Blodgett of Franklin. Mr. Bingham was 
also named as chairman of the committee on national affairs, 
which was first made one of the regular standing committees 
of the House in 1869, which was the last year in which the vet- 
eran legislator, William H. Y. Hackett* of Portsmouth, was re- 
turned to the House, and he was assigned to its chairmanship, 
to be followed in such position in 1870 by the venerable Gen. 
James Wilsont of Keene, who was also a member of the House, 
for the last time, in 1871, and held membership upon this com- 
mittee. 

In the session of 1872, when his colleagues from Littleton were 
the same as in the previous year, Mr, Bingham was again 
assigned to service on the committees on the judiciary and 
national affairs, but the Republicans having regained power, 
elected a majority of the members and organized both branches 
of the Legislature, the chairmanships were, of course, bestowed 



*William Henry Young Hackett, a native of Gilmanton, born Septem- 
ber 24, ISOO, died at Portsmouth, where he had practiced law for more 
than half a century, August 9, 1878. He was educated at Gilmanton 
Academy and studied for his profession with the famous Ichabod 
Bartlett. He attained a high standing in his profession and was active 
and prominent in public life, serving in the House of Representatives 
in 1851, 1852 and 1853, in 1857 and 1860; in the Senate in 1861 and 
1862, being president the latter year and in the House again from 1867 
to 1869 inclusive. His son, the late William H. Hackett, long-time clerk 
of the United State courts in this state, also served many years in the 
House, cotemporaneously with Mr. Bingham. Hon. Wallace Hackett 
of the Legislature of 1909 is a grandson. 

tGen. James Wilson, a son of James Wilson, a noted lawyer of Peter- 
borough, was born in that town, March 17, 1797. He removed to Keene 
with his father, in youth, and was there educated, studied law and en- 
gaged in practice, gaining high standing as an advocate, and also as a 
Whig campaign speaker. He was widely known as "Long Jim Wilson" 
and was a prominent figure in the famous "Hard Cider" campaign of 
1840. He served many years in the Legislature and was speaker of the 
House in 1828. In 1847 he was elected to Congress and reelected in 
1849, but resigned the following year and went to California where he 
remained many years, but ultimately returned to Keene, and was there 
elected to the Legislature again in 1870, and reelected in 1871. He was 
prominent in the state militia in early life, and attained the rank of 
major general. 



160 HARRY BiyGHAM MEMORIAL. 

upon members of that partj'. Asa Fowler* of Concord was 
tlie speaker of the House, receiving 208 votes to 138 for Thomas 
Cogswell, the Democratic candidate. Josiah H. Benton, Jr.. was 
clerk and Samuel C. Clark of Gilford, assistant clerk. Bain- 
bridge "\iVadleight of Milford was named as chairman of the 
judiciary committee, followed by Marston of Exeter and Flint 
of Concord. Mr. Bingham as the leading Democrat being given 
fourth place. The other members, in order, were Messrs. "Weed 
of Sandwich. Burrows of Plymouth. Cogswell of Gilmanton, 
Farrar of Keene. Sulloway of Manchester, Albin of Concord, 
Smith of Newmarket and Blake of Fitzwilliam. 

This session was a memorable one in no sense of the word. 
Xo legislation of special importance was enacted and no question 
came up involving any serious debate in which ^Ir. Bingham 
participated. As the Democratic leader he spoke, briefly, in two 
or three election contests and was heard in vigorous and effective 
protest, when, toward the close of the session, the majority 
leaders set out to smother all discussion to further final adjourn- 



*Asa Fowler, bom in Pembroke. February 23, ISll, died at San Rafael, 
Cal., April 26, 1SS5. He was educated at Pembroke Academy and Dart- 
mouth College, graduating from the latter in 1833. He studied law with 
James Sullivan at Pembroke and Gen. Charles H. Peaslee at Concord, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1S37, commencing practice in Concord, 
where he soon became a partner with Gen. Franklin Pierce, with whom 
he continued several years, attending to the office work and preparation 
of cases, while General Pierce was conspicuous in the court room. Later 
he was for a short time senior partner with John Y. Mugridge. and also 
with William E. Chandler. He was clerk of the State Senate from 
1835 to 1S41, and a representative in the Legislature in 1S45, 1S47 and 
1848, and again in 1871 and 1S72, being speaker the latter year. He 
was an associate jusitice of the Supreme Court from 1S55 to 1861; 
solicitor of Merrimack County from 1861 till 1865, and was appointed a 
member of the commission to revise the laws of the state in the latter 
year. 

tBainbridge Wadleigh, bom in Bradford, X. H., January 4, 1831, 
died at Boston, Mass., January 24, 1S91. He was educated at Kimball 
Union Academy, Meriden, and studied law with Mason W. Tappan at 
Bradford, commencing practice in Milford before he was twenty-one 
years old. He early took an active interest in politics, as a Republican, 
and was chosen to the Legislature from Milford in 1S56, again in 1859 
and 1860, also from 1869 to 1872, inclusive. In the latter year his 
prominence as a party leader in the House made him a formidable 
candidate for United States senator and he was elected to that office, 
but failed of reelection and upon the completion of his term he estab- 
lished his law office in Boston, where he had gained a most lucrative 
practice at the time of his decease. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 161 

ment at a certain fixed date. It maj' be noted that, at this 
session, Mr. Bingham attempted to secure an amendment to a 
bill which had been introduced increasing the salaries of the 
justices of the Supreme Court, so as to provide a salary* for the 
attorney general equal to that of an associate justice. 

In 1873, Charles A. Sinclair, a son of Hon. John G. Sinclair, 
and J. C. Goodenough were the associate members of the House 
with Mr. Bingham, elected from Littleton. The House organ- 
ized for the session by the choice of James W. Emer\' of Ports- 
mouth as speaker, Samuel C. Clark of Gilford, clerk, and Charles 
C. Danforth of Concord, assistant clerk. Cyrus A. Sulloway 
of Manchester, now and for the last fifteen years representative 
in Congress from the First District of New Hampshire, was 
chairman of the judiciary committee, ranking Gen. Gilman 
Marston of Exeter, who held second place, with Mr. Bingham 
third, and other members, in order, as follows: "Weed of Sand- 
wich, Burrows of Pl^Tnouth, Blake of Fitzwilliam, Sanborn of 
Franklin, Smith of Newmarket, Healey of Keene, Jewell of 
Laconia, Otterson of Nashua and "Whitehouse of Rochester. 

The only important measure of a partisan nature coming 
before the Legislature at this session was an act introduced by 
]Mr. Bell of Exeter, subsequently governor of the state, providing 
for a " gerrjTuander ' ' of the councillor and congressional dis- 
tricts of the state, which finally passed, though not without the 
earnest antagonism of the Democratic members, who were out- 
numbered in the House by more than fiity majority, the vote on 
the election of speaker standing 202 for Mr. Emery and 147 for 
Joseph Burrows, the Democratic candidate. Mr. Bingham par- 
ticipated prominently in the debate when the gerrymander biU 
was under consideration, denouncing its unfairness and endeav- 
oring, in vain, to secure several important amendments. 

In the course of a debate upon a measure changing the hour 
of closing the polls in one of the wards of the City of Portsmouth, 
;Mr. Bingham took issue sharply with certain remarks that had 
been made by Mr. Gallinger of Concord, present L'nited States 
senator, then serving his second term in the House, and Mr. 
Gould of Portsmouth. The former had contended that the 
federal administration had a right to see that the government 
u 



162 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

employes give their votes in support of its principles and policy, 
or those of the dominant party, while the latter declared that an 
employer had a right to insist that his employes vote as he does. 
Mr. Bingham denounced these contentions as unsound and antag- 
onistic to republican principles, and that their enforcement in 
practice would put an end to republican government. It would 
make the employer master and his employes merely so many cat- 
tle. As for himself he was born with faith in republican insti- 
tutions, and would do his best to sustain them until his latest 
breath. As for the proposition that the administration had a 
right to demand that the federal employes vote to sustain it, he 
denied it most emphatically, and declared, moreover, that it did 
injustice to the Republican party, according to its recent pro- 
fessions of devotion to the principles of civil service reform. 

Another measure upon which Mr. Bingham was heard, and 
with due effect in this case, was a resolution calling for the 
holding of a constitutional convention. A recommendation in 
favor of the same had been embodied in the governor's message, 
but a special committee, to which the matter had been referred, 
had reported unfavorably, and the report adopted by the House. 
Subsequently Mr. Albin of Concord had moved a reconsideration 
of the vote adopting the committee 's report, and had carried the 
same by a small majority, but upon bringing the resolution in 
favor of a convention forward a debate ensued in which Mr, 
Bingham spoke earnestly in opposition, and was followed by Mr. 
Emery of Portsmouth in the same line, and the result was that 
it was defeated by a strong vote. 

The year 1874 witnessed another political overturn in New 
Hampshire, in that it saw the complete restoration of the Demo- 
cratic party to power in the state, though the election was again 
so close that there was no choice of governor by the people, 
James A. Weston, again the Democratic candidate, receiving 
35,608 votes to 34,143 for Luther McCutchins of New London, 
Republican nominee, while John Blackmer, Prohibitionist, got 
2,097, and there were forty-five scattering votes. Only two of 
the five councillor districts made a choice at the polls and but 
not secure control of the Senate, seven Democratic and five 
Republicans being chosen; but the Democratic margin in the 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 163 

House, though not heavy, was a safe one, sufficiently large, 
indeed, to render impracticable any scheme of the opposition 
to ''doctor" the membership roll through connivance with the 
clerk, even were it seriously considered in any quarter. 

Mr. Bingham was again at the front, at the head of the Little- 
ton delegation, which included, this year, J. C. Goodenough and 
Hon. John G. Sinclair, at that time a resident of the town. The 
House organized promptly by the election of Hon. Albert R. 
Hatch* of Portsmouth as speaker, he receiving 176 votes to 
163 for James W. Emery. Charles H. Smith of Newmarket was 
chosen clerk and John B. Mills of Manchester, assistant clerk. 
Mr. Bingham was made chairman of the judiciary committee, 
his associates, in the order of their assignment, being: Blodgett 
of Franklin, Emery of Portsmouth, Burrows of Plymouth, 
Briggs of Manchester, Jewell of Laconia, Hall of Dover, San- 
bom of Franklin, Woods of Bath, Paul of Unity, Healey of 
Manchester and Foss of Hillsborough. 

The four senate vacancies (as well as the three councillor) 
having been filled, in joint convention by the election of the 
Democratic candidates, that party was in complete control, and 
prepared to devote the session, in the main, to a complete over- 
turn and reorganization of the state government in its own 
interest. A new arrangement of the councillor and senatorial 
districts was effected, city ward lines were changed wherever it 
could be done to the apparent advantage of the party and the 
judiciary system was reorganized, the existing "Supreme 
Judicial Court" being abolished and a dual system, including a 
Superior Court of Judicature, and a Circuit, or trial, Court, 



*Albert R. Hatch, born in Greenland, October 10, 1817, died at Ports- 
mouth, March 5, 18S2. He graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, 
Me., in 1837, studied law with Ichabod Bartlett at Portsmouth, was 
admitted to the bar in 1841, and established himself in practice in 
Portsmouth, where he coutiuued through life, gaining a successful 
practice and a high reputation both as a lawyer and advocate. He was 
active In politics as a Democrat and was chosen a representative in 
the Legislature in 1847 and 1848. In the latter year he was appointed 
solicitor for Rockingham County and clerk of the United States Dis- 
trict Court, holding the former position till the political overturn in 
1855, and the latter for twenty-five years. In 1873 he was again chosen 
a representative and reelected the three succeeding years, serving as 
speaker in 1874. He was prominent in Free Masonry and in the affairs 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 



164 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

established in place thereof. The Republican minority, of course, 
protested, and resisted to the extent of its ability, but was 
powerless to interpose any substantial obstacle, and the work was 
carried through even to the removal of nearly every officer in 
the state who could be reached through legislative address, so 
that the Governor was kept more than busy during the session, 
and for some time afterwards, in selecting men to fill the places 
of the deposed. 

In carrying through the reorganization program, which in- 
cluded the framing and enactment of the measure creating the 
new judiciary system, Mr. Bingham was the leading spirit and 
directing mind, and, although the party majority behind him was 
sufficient for all practical purposes, with due care and discre- 
tion in management, it was not sufficiently large to permit of any 
carelessness or indiscretion, and a cool head and steady hand 
were requisite to the successful accomplishment of the purpose 
in view ; nor were these at any time found lacking. 

It was during this session of 1874 that the bill authorizing 
the union of the Boston and Lowell and Nashua and Lowell rail- 
roads was introduced and eventually enacted, its passage 
through the House being characterized by one of the most 
earnest and bitter contests that had ever been witnessed in the 
Legislature up to that time. Introduced early in the session it 
was kept in committee till well along toward the close, being 
ordered to a third reading after a sharp debate, July 1, and 
defeated the following day by a vote of 141 to 146. Mr. Sanborn 
of Franklin, one of its most active supporters, gave notice of a 
motion to reconsider, and, on July 7, introduced such motion, 
which was finally passed by a vote of 175 to 137. A season of 
warm and bitter debate, dilatory motions and general fillibus- 
tering followed, and adjournment for the day was finally taken 
without action upon the bill, upon motion of Mr. Bingham. The 
matter was reached again on the morning of July 9, and was 
finally made a special order for the afternoon of that day, when 
it was ultimately passed by a vote of 168 to 149, promptly going 
through the Senate and becoming a law. Charges of corruption 
and undue influence had been made, and an investigating com- 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 165 

mittee appointed, but nothing of importance was brought to 
light, whatever the real facts in the case may have been. 

Mr. Bingham was active and earnest in his antagonism to this 
measure, and might properly have been designated the leading 
spirit of the opposition. The contest, however, was not made 
along partisan lines. John G. Sinclair, who had long been con- 
spicuous in Democratic leadership, in and out of the Legislature, 
was the most active and prominent champion of the measure, 
being ably supported by E. B. S. Sanborn of Franklin, then a 
Republican, and James W. Emery of Portsmouth, while James 
F. Briggs of Manchester and Joshua G. Hall of Dover, also 
leading Republicans, were arrayed with Mr. Bingham against it. 
There were decidedly sharp passages at arms, figuratively speak- 
ing, between Mr. Bingham and Mr. Sinclair at times, the latter 
even going so far on one occasion as to accuse Mr. Bingham of 
having told Col. John H. George, who, as the attorney of the 
Boston and Lowell railroad, was a prominent sponsor of the 
measure, that he would not oppose it. This Mr. Bingham denied 
in the most emphatic terms, declaring that he had never seen the 
bill until it was reported, and had never contemplated support- 
ing or assenting to any such scheme of consolidation as the 
measure involved — a scheme which was manifestly a stepping- 
stone toward the upbuilding of a gigantic railroad monopoly. 
In view of subsequent actual results the accuracy of Mr. Bing- 
ham's diagnosis is scarcely to be questioned, whatever may be 
said as to the wisdom of his position, which depends entirely 
upon the view point from which it is regarded, and which it is 
not pertinent to discuss in this connection. 

In 1875 the Republicans regained control of the House by a 
majority substantially the same as the Democrats had in the 
year previous, and by virtue thereof were enabled, finally, to 
elect their candidate for governor. Person C. Cheney of Man- 
chester, who had failed of election by popular vote ; but they did 
not secure control of the Senate, seven Democratic and five 
Republican senators having been found elected by the Governor 
and Council, in their canvass of the returns, and summoned to 
meet for organization, though it had been, for some time after 
election, the popular understanding that no choice had been 



166 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

made in the Second and Fourth Senatorial Districts. It was 
discovered, however, some weeks before the time for the assem- 
bling of the Legislature, that the Republican candidate in the 
Second District had been voted for as "Natt" Head, whereas 
his lawful name, and the name by which he himself voted at that 
election, as it stood upon the check list, in his town of Hooksett, 
was ''Nathaniel" Head; while in the Fourth District, where 
forty-five votes were cast for the Prohibition ticket the nominee 
of that party, Arthur Deering of Pittsfield, had not been a 
resident of the state for seven years preceding the election, and 
was therefore ineligible, as were, also, some of the men who 
received scattering votes. The Governor and Council, in canvass- 
ing the returns, took cognizance of the facts presented, and, in 
accordance with the express language of the statute declaring 
that all ballots not bearing the full Christian and surname of the 
candidate shall be regarded as blanks and "not counted," threw 
out the returns of votes for "Natt" Head in the Second Dis- 
trict, as well as those for Arthur Deering in the Fourth, which 
left James Priest, the Democratic candidate, elected in the 
former, and John Proctor, also the Democratic candidate, in the 
latter, and the Governor issued his summons to them to assemble 
with the other senators-elect in the Senate chamber on the day 
set for the opening of the Legislature, which they did and the 
Senate was duly organized by the seven Democratic senators 
constituting a majority of the body, the five Republican senators- 
elect refusing to participate, flocking by themselves, and setting 
up a temporary "rump" organization. 

The House of Representatives, to which Mr. Bingham had 
been returned again from Littleton, along with his brother, 
George A. Bingham and Otis G. Hale, organized by the election 
of Charles P. Sanborn* of Concord as speaker, Samuel C. Clark 



♦Charles P. Sanborn, born in Concord, September 13, 1834, died in 
that city, June 3, 1889. Mr. Sanborn was a student of Yale College for 
three years, but did not graduate. He subsequently taught school for 
a time, and then studied law with the late Judge Henry A. Bellows. 
Upon admission to the bar he became junior partner in the law firm of 
George, Foster & Sanborn, his associates being the late Col. John H. 
George and William L. Foster, subsequently associate justice of the 
Supreme Court, which firm commanded a large and lucrative practice. 
He served in the Legislature in 1862 and 1863, and again in 1875 and 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 167 

as clerk and Charles C. Danforth, assistant clerk, the vote for 
speaker standing 190 for Mr. Sanborn to 179 for Albert R. 
Hatch, Democrat. 

Immediately after the organization was effected Mr. Barton 
of Newport introduced a resolution directing the speaker to 
obtain the opinion of the Superior Court as to whether or not 
the Governor had constitutional authority to issue a summons 
to either James Priest or John Proctor to appear as a senator- 
elect upon the convening of the Legislature, immediately after 
the introduction of which the House adjourned till afternoon. 
Upon reassembling the matter was at once taken up, when Mr. 
Bingham moved the reference of the resolution to a select com- 
mittee of six to be appointed by the speaker. 

Mr. Hatch of Portsmouth addressed the House in opposition 
to the resolution, on the ground that the matter was one with 
which the House had nothing to do and that the adoption of 
such resolution would be disrespectful to the Senate. Mr. 
Barton followed in defence of his resolution, and was in turn fol- 
lowed by Mr. Bingham who deprecated hasty action in a mat- 
ter of this importance. He thought it might be well to have the 
opinion of the court, but it should be sought in the proper 
manner. It was for the Senate to ask the opinion, if it was to 
be secured, as it doubtless would, and he had no doubt as to 
what the answer would be. If, however, the House is to ask the 
court's opinion it should be asked upon a proper presenta- 
tion of the facts in the case, which the resolution before the 
House failed to embody. 

After a protracted debate, accompanied by no little "fillibus- 
tering," Mr. Bingham's motion to refer to a special committee 
in order that a proper resolution could be framed, was defeated, 
178 to 189, and at the close of the forenoon session on the second 
day Mr. Barton's resolution was adopted, all opportunity for 
amendment being refused. 

It was not until Wednesday of the second week — June 9 — 
that the House concluded to recognize the Senate and notify 



18T6, the last two years in the speaker's chair. He was city solicitor 
for Concord from 1871 to 1880, for several years a member of the board 
of education and clerk of the Concord and Claremont Railroad. 



168 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

that body tliat it was ready to meet it in joint convention to pro- 
ceed with the elections in accordance with the Constitution, the 
opinion of the Superior Court having been received meanwhile, 
in both branches, substantially to the effect that it was not 
within the province of that tribunal to pass upon a completed 
act of the executive department, a coordinate branch of the 
government, done in the discharge of its constitutional duties, 
or to review the action of the Senate in exercising its right 
under the Constitution to make final determination of the elec- 
tion and qualifications of its own members; and the "seceding" 
senators having concluded to return to their seats and perform 
the duty for which they were chosen. 

The canvass of the vote for Governor showed 39,292 votes 
for Person C. Cheney of Manchester, Republican; 39,121 for 
Hiram R. Roberts of Rollinsford, Democrat, 713 for Nathaniel 
White of Concord, Prohibitionist, and 19 scattering. There be- 
ing no choice by the popular vote, the convention proceeded to 
ballot, casting 186 votes for Roberts and 193 for Cheney, who 
was elected, though not commanding the full Republican 
strength. 

The judiciary committee of the House, this year, was made up 
with Mr. Barton of New^port as chairman, and Messrs. Mugridge 
of Concord, Hatch of Portsmouth, Harry Bingham of Littleton, 
Leavitt of Exeter, Hazelton of Pembroke, Hiland of Manchester, 
Dinsmore of Laconia, Otterson of Nashua, Huntley of Alstead, 
Hayes of Milton and Topliff of Freedom. 

With the Senate constituted as it was there was no oppor- 
tunity for the success of any pronounced partisan legislation, 
and none, therefore, was seriously attempted; nor was there 
any controversy over legislation of any kind, though the oust- 
ing of a few Democratic members of the House gave oppor- 
tunity for occasional exhibition of partisan rancor. 

The only extended debate occurring in the House after the 
first days of the session was one opening on the 22d of June, 
when Orren C. Moore* of Nashua, who had been forging to 



*Orren C. Moore, born in New Hampton, August 10, 1839, died at 
Nashua, May 14, 1893. He removed with his parents to Manchester in 
early childhood, where he attended the public schools and learned the 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 169 

the front as a Republican leader, called up a series of resolu- 
tions which he had introduced a few days previous and which 
had been made a special order for that day. These resolutions 
related to the controversy over the organization of the Senate, 
were unquestionably designed for the manufacture of party 
capital in the Republican interest, and were so understood by 
both parties in the House and out. They condemned, in strong 
terms, the action of the Governor and Council in rejecting the 
votes returned for Head and Deering, as "unconstitutional, 
without precedent in the history of the state, and contrary to 
the overwhelming weight of legislative and judicial authority 
in this country." They also condemned the Senate for "per- 
petuating the arbitrary and unconstitutional action of the 
Governor and Council" and voiced "a solemn protest against 
the arbitrary and unconstitutional precedent established." 

Mr. Moore delivered a lengthy and elaborate speech on the 
afternoon of June 22, in support of his resolutions and the same 
went over till the following day when Mr. Bingham spoke at 
equal length and with characteristic force against them. Only 
the merest newspaper outline of this speech is preserved, vague 
and imperfect in language and detail ; but it is safe to say, 
judging from the points preserved and from the reported trib- 
utes of both ally and opponent following in the discussion, that 
it was a powerful and masterly effort. He characterized the 
resolutions of Mr. Moore as entirely without precedent in the 
state, and, with a solitary exception, in the entire country; en- 



printer's trade, which he followed for a time in youth in the office of 
his brother, Frederick A. Moore, at La Crosse, Wisconsin, subsequently 
returning to Manchester, where he was engaged several years as fore- 
man in the American office. In 1864 he went to Nashua as editor of the 
Telegraph of which paper he became a joint proprietor in 1867, con- 
tinuing the editorial management through life. While in Manchester 
Mr. Moore was a representative in the Legislature from Ward Four, in 
1863 and 1864, when Mr. Bingham was also a member. He also served 
in the House from Nashua in 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1878, and in the 
Senate in 1879 and 1880. He served three years as chairman of the 
board of railroad commissioners by the appointment of Gov. Samuel 
W. Hale, and two years in Congress from the Second New Hampshire 
District, from 1889 to 1891, but was defeated for reelection by Warren 
F. Daniell of Franklin. He was chairman of the Republican state com- 
mittee in 1873, and a delegate to the Republican National Convention 
in 1876. Mr. Moore had no superior in the state as a political writer, 
and few equals as a speaker among his contemporaries. 



170 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

tirely without warrant and in absolute violation of parliamen- 
tary law. He said they contained but a partial statement of 
the facts, some being omitted, some unstated and others dis- 
torted. No good result could come of their adoption and harm 
alone could grow out of them. Their introduction contemplated 
an unwarrantable interference by the House with the Execu- 
tive department of the government. If the Governor was guilty 
of mis-doing he should be proceeded against in the constitutional 
manner by the process of impeachment. The only precedent 
for the proposed action was that afforded in the case of the 
heroic President Andrew Jackson, who had similar resolutions 
passed against him by the United States Senate, which were 
afterward ''expunged" by order of that body. What, he asked, 
would be thought if the Senate should undertake to question 
and investigate the right of members to seats in the House? 
They have as much right to do so as the house has to interfere 
with the composition of the Senate. There were thirty or forty 
members, he asserted, having no right to seats on this floor — 
four at least from the County of Grafton, and various others 
whom he particularized, including the gentleman from Nashua, 
himself, the chairman of the committee on elections, who had 
better investigate his own affairs before meddling with those 
of the Senate. The passage of these resolutions by a partisan 
House, he said, could only result in bitterness and recrimination. 
He then went exhaustively over the entire history of the case, 
stating the law and the facts, reviewing the course of the gov- 
ernor and council, and the reasons governing their action, 
showing, moreover, that they had had the advice, in support of 
such action, of two of the most eminent ex-judges in the state — 
Sawyer and Fowler, both Republicans, and the latter recently 
himself the speaker of the House, each having given a written 
opinion justifying the course finally pursued. 

He characterized the bitter tirades in the Republican news- 
paper press, against the executive and the court as grossly 
outrageous and improper, intended only for partisan effect, as 
were the resolutions under consideration, and expressed the be- 
lief that the wicked onslaught against an honest Governor 
and an upright court, then being indulged in, would not be 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 171 

sustained by the great mass of the Republican party, though 
it must be conceded, in view of the next year's election out- 
come, that he too generously judged the rank and file of his 
political opponents.* He then reviewed some of the legal 
arguments adduced by the mover of the resolutions in their 
support, showing how citations had been miscontrued and mis- 
applied, and in some instances actually sustained the other 
side, and declared that the opposition could well rest their 
cause on the cases cited. He insisted that the Governor's 
course was lawful and just, that it was properly sustained by 
the court, and that every person, having fair legal under- 
standing, Imew very well that the matter had been legally and 
constitutionally determined; that peace ought to prevail thence- 
forward in the Legislature, and the legitimate work of the ses- 
sion be duly and properly performed for the good of the peo- 
ple and the welfare of the state. If wrong had been done 
and its condemnation was necessary, he submitted that the five 



♦There is no doubt that the clamor which was set up by Republican 
politicians, reiterated constantly in the columns of the party press, 
and intensified by speakers on the stump in the next campaign, over 
the action of the" Governor and Council in rejecting the returns of votes 
for Head and Deering and in issuing summonses to Priest and Proctor; 
over the course of the Senate in seating the latter, and the refusal of 
the Court to interfere in the premises had much to do with promoting 
the decisive Republican victory in the state in the following year. The 
changes were constantly rung on the "Senate Steal," as it was termed, 
and thousands of fair minded people, who gave the matter no real 
thought, were led to believe that a great popular outrage had been 
perpetrated through the instigation of the Democratic leaders, for the 
purpose of depriving the Republicans of the legitimate fruits of victory 
at the polls. And yet there is no more real doubt that the course pur- 
sued by the executive in the matter was strictly in accordance with the 
law, and that so far as any defiance of the popular will was concerned 
there was no real ground upon which the charge could be based, since 
more ballots were cast for the candidates that were eventually seated 
than for any other in their respective districts, and had the plurality 
rule obtained, as in most states, both would have been declared elected 
without question. As for the course pursued by the court no other could 
have been taken except by usurpation of authority not conferred by the 
Constitution, and the absolute soundness of its position was practically 
endorsed and confirmed by the action of the court in the legislative 
controversy of 1891, when the names of the so-called "if entitled" rep- 
resentatives-elect were placed upon the roll of the House by the clerk, 
and the same were confirmed in their seats by the House itself through 
their own cooperation, illegally, as was complained by the Democrats, 
who appealed to the court for redress and were promptly refused the 
same upon the plain ground of "no jurisdiction." 



172 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Republican senators had violated the Constitution when they 
"seceded," and the Republican House had done the same when 
it refused to go into convention to elect state officers on the 
first Wednesday in June. But the Democratic members had 
indulged in no abuse or useless criticism, and were ready at all 
times to go on with the proper and legitimate work of the 
session. 

In conclusion, Mr. Bingham offered amendments practically 
reversing the character of the resolutions, commending the 
course of the Governor and Council and declaring the action 
of the Senate in its final disposition of the matter to be a legiti- 
mate and proper exercise of its own constitutional powers. He 
moved the adoption of his amendments, but they were, as a mat- 
ter of course, rejected after farther discussion by a strictly 
partisan vote, and the Moore resolutions ultimately adopted in 
the same manner. 

In 1876, Charles P. Sanborn was again speaker of the House, 
reelected by a good working Republican majority of 204 votes 
to 168 for Frank Hiland of Manchester, the Democratic candi- 
date. Charles C. Danforth was reelected clerk and Alpheus 
W. Baker, assistant clerk. Mr. Bingham came back from Lit- 
tleton, as usual, and his brother, George A., and Mr. George 
Carter were his associates. The Republicans were in "full 
swing" in both branches of the Legislature this year, and had 
reelected Governor Cheney by a good majority at the polls. A 
complete political overturn was promised and expected, and the 
triumphant majority lost no time in getting down to work; nor 
did the Democrats as a rule, resort to factious opposition. 
Some unreasonable procedures were resisted sufficiently to show 
that the minority were not lacking in the spirit of proper re- 
sentment for palpable wrong, as was illustrated in their de- 
termined opposition to the high-handed course of the majority 
in connection with the celebrated Antrim election case, where 
David H. Goodell contested the right of Nathan C. Jameson 
to a seat in the House and was finally awarded the seat him- 
self, the majority actually refusing even to allow the majority 
and minority reports of the committee on elections to be printed 
for the information of the House. In this contest Orren C. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 173 

Moore, chairman of the committee on elections, and the real 
Republican floor leader throughout the session, in all partisan 
matters, marshalled the forces of the majority, and Mr. Bingham 
led the minority members in such opposition as was made in this 
and in other cases where resistance to what they regarded as 
palpable wrong seemed to be properly called for, even though 
it was fully apparent that all resistance would prove futile. 
The time of this session was mainly occupied in carrying out 
the Republican programme, which involved the undoing of all 
that the Democrats had done two years before, and going even 
farther in the work of partisan intrenchment. All the Demo- 
cratic officeholders in reach from one end of the state to the 
other were turned out by address and even one or two of the Re- 
publican "spared monuments" were proceeded against in the 
same way, because it was held that any man sufficiently accept- 
able to the Democrats to be allowed by them to remain in office, 
should be regarded as a suspicious character and disposed of 
accordingly. The councillor and senatorial districts were re- 
arranged, the cities "gerrymandered" anew; the new judiciary 
system wiped out and the one previously in vogue restored, and 
everything that could be thought of done to promote the ad- 
vantage of the party in power. The minority, as has been said, 
engaged in no factious opposition, and IMr. Bingham was not 
often heard in discussion. "When impelled by a sense of duty, 
however, he did not hesitate to advocate what he believed to be 
right, as, for instance, when the act reorganizing the judiciary 
was under consideration he urged the provision of adequate 
salaries for the judges, and earnestly opposed the motion of 
Mr. Barton of Newport, who was again chairman of the judi- 
ciary committee of the House, of which Mr. Bingham was also 
a member as usual, along with Marston of Exeter, Stevens of 
Nashua and others, reducing the salaries of the judges, as re- 
ported, which motion finally prevailed, notwithstanding his em- 
phatic protest. So, too, when the joint resolution accepting the 
invitation of Congress to the state to provide two statues of 
representative New Hampshire men for Statuarj- Hall in the 
Capitol at Washing-ton, came up for consideration, and a mo- 
tion to postpone action, which finally prevailed, had been made, 



174 HABRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Mr. Bingham was heard against postponement and in behalf 
of immediate favorable action, contending that the preservation 
of the memories of illustrious deeds and men was one of the 
substantial bases of a liberal education, and he strongly depre- 
cated the manifest reluctance of the House to give its approval 
to the measure. 

The Legislature found time at this session to enact a law in 
aid of the purity of elections. This act was one introduced by 
Mr. Bingham and which had been drawn by him with great 
care and introduced at the previous session when it was in- 
definitely postponed by vote of the majority party. Introduced 
again at this session it was favorably reported, from the judi- 
ciary committee by Mr. Bingham, July 19. On the day follow- 
ing it was read a second time, when General Stevens of Nashua 
moved to amend by striking out Sections 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The 
newspaper report of the proceedings states that "quite a 
lengthy discussion ensued between the two members" (Mr. 
Bingham and General Stevens) and on the voting being taken 
upon the motion to amend, Mr. Bingham demanded the yeas and 
nays with the result that 163 members voted yea and 121 nay, 
the Democrats mainly casting the negative vote, so the motion 
prevailed and the bill was emasculated by striking out the sec- 
tions named. 

The bill as introduced by Mr. Bingham and favorably re- 
ported from the judiciary committee was as follows: 
State of New Hampshire. 

In the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sev- 
enty six. 

An Act in aid of the Purity of Elections, 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
in General Court convened: 

Section 1. If any person shall, directly or indirectly, hire, 
procure, induce or in any way influence, or attempt to hire, 
procure, induce or in any way influence, by payment, promises, 
offers of emoluments, offers of reward of any kind, loans of 
money or other thing, threats or intimidation, any voter to stay 
away from any town meeting, or to vote at any town meeting 
for or against any particular ticket or candidate for oflice, or 
to ask, in order to disqualify himself from voting at any elec- 
tion, the abatement of his taxes, or, to be excused from paying 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 175 

taxes, such person shall be fined not more than five hundred dol- 
lars, or be imprisoned not more than three months. 

Sect. 2. If any person shall, directly or indirectly, con- 
tribute or furnish, any money, goods, chattels or other thing 
whatsoever, to be used to induce any voter to stay away from 
any town meeting, or to avoid voting at any town meeting, or 
to vote at any town meeting for or against any particular ticket 
or candidate for office, or to ask, in order to disqualify himself 
from voting at any election, the abatement of his taxes, or to 
be excused from paying taxes, such person shall be fined not 
more than five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned not more than 
three months. 

Sect. 3. Any voter, at any town meeting, may challenge 
any other voter offering to vote at such meeting and the mod- 
erator shall not receive the vote of such voter so challenged until 
he shall subscribe and take an oath, before some person by law 
authorized to administer oaths, or before some one of the select- 
men, any one of whom is hereby empowered to administer the 
same, and shall tender to the town clerk or moderator such oath 
so subscribed, with the jurat thereon filled out and signed by 
the magistrate administering the same, which oath shall be as 
follows : 

I solemnly swear that I have not, directly or in- 
directly, hired, procured, induced or in any way influenced, or 
attempted to hire, procure, induce or in any way influence, by 
payment, promises, offers of emolument, offers of reward of any 
kind, loans of money or other thing, threats or intimidations, 
any voter to stay away from this town meeting, or to avoid vot- 
ing at this town meeting, or to vote at this town meeting for or 
against any particular ticket or candidate for office, or to ask, 
in order to disqualify himself from voting at this town meeting, 
the abatement of his taxes, or to be excused from paying his 
taxes. Nor have I, directly nor indirectly, contributed or fur- 
nished, or promised to contribute or furnish, any money, goods, 
chattels, or any other thing whatsoever, to be used to induce any 
voter to stay away from this town meeting, or to vote at this 
town meeting for or against any particular ticket or candidate 
for office, or ask, in order to disqualify himself from voting at 
this town meeting, the abatement of his taxes, or to be excused 
from paying taxes. Nor have I, either directly, or indirectly, 
been hired or procured, or in any way influenced, by payment, 
promises, offers of emolument, offers of reward of any kind, 
loans of money or other thing, threats or intimidations, to 
vote at this town meeting for or against any particular ticket 
or candidate for office ; but the vote I now offer to cast and the 



176 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

vote I propose to offer to cast at this town meeting, are in ac- 
cordance with my solemn conviction of duty to my country, un- 
influenced by any payment, promises, offers of emolument, of- 
fers of reward of any kind, loans of money or other thing, 

threats or intimidations whatsoever. So help me God. 

ss. Subscribed and sworn to before me. 

Selectman. 



Sect. 4. In case any voter so challenged, as aforesaid at 
any town meeting shall not subscribe and take said oath he shall 
be denied the right of voting at such town meeting, and any 
moderator who shall receive the vote of a voter so challenged 
and not subscribing and taking said oath shall be punished by 
fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, nor less than one hun- 
dred dollars. 

Sect. 5. Any person who shall subscribe and take said 
oath, and who in so doing shall swear falsely, shall be deemed 
guilty of perjury and punished accordingly. 

Sect. 6. Any person who at any town meeting has sub- 
scribed and taken the oath aforesaid, and who at the same town 
meeting after taking said oath shall be guilty of any oft'ence 
named in this act, shall be punished by imprisonment not less 
than six months nor more than one year. 

Sect. 7. The Secretary of State shall prepare and dis- 
tribute to the clerk of each town, printed blanks for the oath 
aforesaid at the time he is required by law to furnish said clerks 
with printed blanks for the return of votes; and it shall be the 
duty of said clerks to have at hand such blanks at every town 
meeting, and to keep on file all oaths that may be subscribed 
and taken as by the act provided, and to make the record of 
the names of the voters subscribing and taking such oath, and 
of the fact that it was taken, upon the record of the proceedings 
of the town meeting at which such oath was taken, a copy of 
which record, duly authenticated, shall be competent evidence 
on the trial of any issue in a court of law, so far as it may be 
material. 

Sect. 8. It shall be the duty of the selectmen, at the open- 
ing of the town meeting, before any votes are taken, to read 
this act to the meeting, or to cause the same to be so read. 

Mr. Sinclair of Bethlehem offered an amendment which was 
adopted and incorporated in the act as Section 3, as follows : 
One half of the fines imposed for the violation of this act shall 
go to the prosecutor, and the other half to the county. The 
original Section 8 then became Section 4, and the bill, as thus 
amended, was then passed, under suspension of the rules moved 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 177 

by Mr. Bingham, was subsequently passed by the Senate and 
became the law. 

It may properly be added in this connection that the sections 
cut out of the act on motion of General Stevens, by vote of the 
majority members, were embodied in a bill introduced by Mr. 
Hutchins of Laconia and enacted into law in 1885, when Mr. 
Bingham was a mmber of the Senate, the latter deeming it 
advisable to have the measure originate in the popular branch. 
Upon introduction it was referred to the judiciary committee, 
which subsequently reported it "inexpedient," through Mr. 
Gilmore of Manchester. This report was laid on the table at 
the time, on motion of Mr. 'Connor of Manchester, Democrat, 
and later taken up and considered on motion of the same gentle- 
man. Messrs. Gibnore of Manchester and Bell of Exeter (John 
J.) favored the report and opposed the bill as unconstitutional, 
while Messrs. Hutchins of Laconia and Stone of Andover 
opposed the report and supported the bill, as did also Messrs. 
Atherton of Nashua and Hackett of Belmont, Eepublicans, in 
earnest terms, taking the ground that the Republican party 
of New Hampshire could not afford to stand, even by implica- 
tion, for corruption in elections. The yeas and nays being de- 
manded, the report was rejected, 40 to 195, and the bill then 
passed with substantial unanimity. When it came up in the 
Senate it was unopposed, and the roll being called on the ques- 
tion of its passage, on demand of Senator Bingham, that every 
man might properly go on record, not a senator responded 
negatively. The act was promptly signed by the Governor, and 
Mr. Bingham at last had the pleasure of seeing his bill in full 
the law of the state and it remains, today, the New Hampshire 
statute for the protection of the purity of the ballot — a statute 
generally regarded as the most stringent and efficacious law of 
the kind to be found in the entire Union — a substantial monu- 
ment to the zeal and patriotism of the man who contributed more 
than any other man of his time to the constructive legislation 
of the state along beneficent lines. 

In 1877, Mr. Bingham's associates, elected from Littleton, were 
Albert S. Batchellor and Ai Fitzgerald. Augustus A. Woolson 
of Lisbon, who is still living in that town, was the speaker of 

12 



178 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the House, having been elected by 217 votes to 147 for Horatio 
Colony of Keene, the Democratic nominee, also still living. The 
chairman of the judiciary committee was Gen. Aaron F. 
Stevens* of Nashua, the other members, following in order, 
being, Eis-Chief Justice Sargent of Concord, Mr. Bingham, 
Barton of Newport, Cross and Topliff of Manchester, Pierce of 
Hillsborough, "Wallace of Milford (Robert M., now chief justice 
of the Superior Court), Hackett (Frank W.) of Portsmouth, 
Colony of Keene, Hayes of Dover and Norris of Epping. 

On account of an unusual pressure of important professional 
work at the time, requiring his presence outside the state, Mr. 
Bingham was unable to be present during the greater part of 
this session, his colleague and partner, Mr. Batchellor, who 
was familiar with his views and position on most matters coming 
before the House, and who kept thoroughly in touch with him, 
representing him as well as his constituents. 

In 1878, when Messrs. Batchellor and Fitzgerald were again 
his colleagues, Mr. Bingham was in his accustomed place in the 
House. Mr. Woolson was again the speaker, receiving 190 
votes to 158 for Herbert F. Norris of Epping, the candidate of 
the Democrats. Alpheus W. Baker of Lebanon was the clerk 
and Charles C Emmons of Bristol, assistant clerk. The ju- 
diciary committee included Messrs. Stevens of Nashua, Marston 
of Exeter, Bingham, Woodman of Dover, Wallace of Milford, 



*Gen. Aaron F. Stevens, born in Londonderry, N. H., August 9, 1819, 
died at Nastiua, May 10, 1887. In youtti General Stevens worlced as a 
macliiuist, hiaving enjoyed limited educational privileges; but lie aspired 
to a higher station and read and studied, privately, for mental im- 
provement. The late Hon. George Y. Sawyer of Nashua, learning of his 
aspirations and natural ability, invited him to enter his office as a 
student at law, which he did at the age of twenty-three years. Three 
years later he was admitted to the bar and immediately became Mr. 
'Sawyer's partner. Their practice was large and important and young 
Stevens was brought in contact with lawyers of rank and ability, with 
whom he was soon able to cope successfully. He was for five years 
solicitor of Hillsborough County, and served in the State Legislature in 
1849, 1854, 1856 and 1857, and from 1876 to 1883 inclusive. He was 
elected to Congress in 1867, and reelected in 1869. Upon the outbreak of 
the Civil War he enlisted in the First New Hampshire Regiment and 
was commissioned major. Subsequently he served as colonel of the 
Thirteenth. At the siege of Petersburg he led a brigade, and was 
severely wounded in the assault upon Fort Harrison. In December, 
1864, he was brevetted brigadier-general for gallant and meritorious 
conduct in action. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 179 

Blodgett, Shurtleff of Colebrook, Evans of Shelburne, Pierce of 
Hillsborough, Patten of Manchester, Norris of Epping and 
French of Moultonborough. 

Although performing his full share in the committee work, 
and looking well to the interests of the state in connection with 
every measure of importance brought before the House, Mr. Bing- 
ham was not active in debate during this session, speaking only 
when he deemed it necessary. It was only once that he was 
thoroughly wrought up and made an earnest appeal to the House, 
and that was when, on August 13, just before the close of the 
session, he took the floor in opposition to the bill providing for 
a new representative apportionment, which had been introduced 
in the interest of the majority party, and which the leaders of 
that party in the closing hours were planning to crowd through 
without debate. Mr. Bingham denounced the bill as not only 
grossly unfair but clearly unconstitutional, and proceeded to 
point out some of its unconstitutional provisions in regard to 
the classification of towns, and to remind members of their 
solemn oaths to support the Constitution, with such effect that 
Mr. Moore of Nashua, who had the bill in charge, assented to 
delay and reference to a special committee, of which Mr. Bing- 
ham and himself, with three others, were named as members, 
through whose final agreement and recommendation material 
changes were made, and an approach to fairness effected before 
the adoption of the measure. 

In 1879, in the first biennial session, Mr. Bingham and Mr. 
Batchellor alone represented Littleton in the Legislature, no 
third representative having been elected. Henry H. Huse* of 



*Henry Howard Huse, born at West Fairlee, Vt., May 31, 1829, died 
in Concord, N. H., September 7, 1890. He was a graduate of the Lowell, 
Mass., high school and studied law with John J. Pillsbury at Pittsfield, 
before the outbreak of the Civil War in which he served as a captain 
and for a short time as major in the Eighth New Hampshire Regiment. 
He was discharged on account of sickness in September, 1863, and the 
following year engaged in law practice at Pittsfield, removing to Man- 
chester in 1868, where he became a partner of Lewis W. Clark and 
James F. Brlggs. He was active in politics, first as a Democrat and 
later as a Republican. He was secretary of the Democratic state com- 
mittee in 1872, but soon after went over to the Republicans and a few 
years later was chairman of the state committee of that party. He was 
a Republican member of the Legislature in 1877, 1878 and 1879, being 
speaker of the House the latter year. He was appointed insurance 
commissioner in 1888, which office he held till his death. 



180 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Manchester was chosen speaker, by 163 votes to 101 for Mr. 
Batchellor, who was named by the Democrats as their candidate, 
and upon whom, as in the two preceding sessions, the "field 
work" of the minority in the House quite largely devolved. 
Messrs. Baker and Emmons were reelected clerk and assistant 
clerk. Gen. Gilman Marston* was chairman of the judiciary 
committee with "Woodman of Dover, and Mr. Bingham next 
in order, followed by Patten of Manchester, Batchellor, French 
of Moultonborough, Kimball of Nashua, Key of Gilford, Robin- 
son of Concord, Carr of Andover, Prescott of Derry and Hatch 
of Greenland. Mr. Bingham also served as a member of the 
committee on national affairs. In this connection it may be 
noted that he was the author of an amendment offered by Sena- 
tor Mann of District No. 2 to certain joint resolutions on national 
affairs, introduced by Senator Moore of the Nashua District ex- 
pressive of the sentiments of the majority party, and finally 
adopted by a strict party vote, though they failed of adoption 
in the House, coming up near the close of the session when there 
was no time to devote to their consideration. This amendment, 
prepared by Mr. Bingham, as a statement of the Democratic 
position, which was voted down, of course, by the strong Repub- 
lican majority, when presented by Mr. Mann, was as follows: 

That the people of New Hampshire demand free and fair elec- 
tions, and to that end denounce all interference with elections 

*Geii. Gilman Marston, one of the ablest lawyers and strongest men 
who ever sat in the New Hampshire Legislature, and the close friend of 
Mr. Bingham for a long series of years, was a native of the town of 
Orford, born August 20, 1811. He worked his way through college by 
teaching, graduating from Dartmouth in 1837. He studied law with 
Judge Leonard Wilcox of Orford, at the Harvard Law School and with 
Hubbard & Watts in Boston, and commenced practice at the age of 
thirty in Exeter, where he ever after resided. He soon made his way 
to the front rank in the Rockingham bar and held his own with the 
ablest practitioners. He entered politics as a Whig, and became a 
Republican upon the organization of that party. He served in the 
State House of Representatives in 1845, 1846 and 1847, again in 1872 
and 1873, and from 1876 to 1889 continuously, having been elected 
fourteen times in all. He also served as a representative from the 
First New Hampshire District in three congresses, having been elected 
in 1857, 1861 and 1865. In 1889 he served three months in the United 
States Senate by executive appointment. He was colonel of the Second 
New Hampshire Regiment in the Civil War; was wounded at Bull 
Run; promoted to brigadier-general for gallant service, and fought at 
Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. He died at Exeter, July 
3, 1890. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 181 

by the military' power; that the experience of this and other 
countries has abundantly proved that the presence of troops at 
the polls is destructive of the freedom of elections, and incom- 
patible with the existence of free institutions; that the laws 
enacted by Congress, which under the pretense of regulating the 
manner of congressional elections, interfere with the election of 
state officers, and overthrow the laws of the states governing 
the choice of such officers, are unconstitutional, and for that 
reason ought to be repealed ; that they are also instrumentalities 
of fraud, force and corruption, by which the party in power uses 
the money of the people to corrupt, and thousands of irrespon- 
sible officers to harass and coerce the voters, and especially by 
force and fraud to deprive our naturalized citizens of the right 
to vote, and for these reasons also said laws ought to be imme- 
diately repealed. 

Resolved, That impartial juries are essential to the adminis- 
tration of justice, and thereby to the preservation of liberty; 
that no man can be secure in his person or his property when 
the juries are packed and controlled by the government for des- 
potic and partisan purposes ; that under federal jury laws, now 
in existence, juries may be and have been so packed and con- 
trolled that the highest interests of free government and justice 
require that these laws be changed so as to secure fair, impartial 
and independent juries in the federal courts. 

Resolved, That the Republican members in Congress, by re- 
fusing to vote supplies to maintain the government, unless the 
majority would agree to the use of troops at the polls, and also 
to the maintenance of the corrupting, violent and unjust elec- 
tion laws aforesaid, and the acting President of the United States 
by his unprecedented use of the veto power, in order to per- 
petuate said laws, and the use of armed men at the polls, have 
shown a spirit of faction and a devotion to party success, instead 
of the welfare of the country and the preservation of its Consti- 
tution and liberties, that command the condemnation of the 
whole American people. 

Resolved, That acting President Hayes, by his frequent in- 
terposition of the veto, in order to defeat legislation that was 
plainly constitutional, that in no way interfered with the inde- 
pendence of any other department of the government and had 
received most mature consideration of Congress, has shown utter 
disregard of the consideration and principles that induced the 
insertion of the veto power into the Constitution and a like dis- 
regard of the wishes and welfare of the people. 

That we declare it to be the duty of the Democratic majority in 
Congress not to grant any money which may be used in any way 



182 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

for the illegal and unconstitutional purpose of controlling or 
influencing the elections of the people; but, remembering the 
patriotic example of our English ancestors and their successors, 
who have for more than a century refused supplies to a treach- 
erous and usurping monarch, they will repel, indignantly and 
finally, the attempts of the acting president to coerce them to 
disregard their solemn duty to the people, by unconstitutional 
and partisan vetoes. 

That the federal Union was established by the Constitution for 
the purpose of regulating and controlling the relations of the 
republic with foreign nations, and the relations and intercourse 
of the people of the states with each other; that the powers of 
the government of the Union are specially delegated by the 
Constitution, and within the limits of those powers the Union 
is sovereign and supreme, but outside of those limits its acts 
are null and void; that all powers not specifically granted to 
the government of the Union, or necessarily implied to enable 
it to perform its specifically defined functions, are reserved by 
the Constitution to the states and the people ; that the states are 
as sovereign and supreme within the sphere of the powers re- 
served to them as the Union is sovereign and supreme in the 
sphere of the powers granted it; and the invasion of the powers 
reserved to the states by the government of the Union is as much 
a crime, and as destructive of our federal system, as would be the 
invasion of the powers delegated to the Union by the states or 
the people; and deserves and should receive the pointed con- 
demnation of every true friend of democratic-republican gov- 
ernment, and of popular liberty. 

That we view with regret and alarm the constant tendency of 
the Republican party toward the establishment of a consolidated 
government which is evinced by its usurpation of power not 
granted by the Constitution to the Union, its constant derision 
and denial of the rights and powers of the states reserved to 
them, and its notorious profligacy and extravagance in the ex- 
penditure of the people's money; and we solemnly believe that 
if such tendency is not soon arrested by the people, our be- 
loved republic will be merged in an empire and ultimately in an 
irresponsible despotism. 

Near the close of the session of 1879, an effort was made by 
Mr. Jones of Weare to secure a suspension of the rules to en- 
able him to introduce a bill providing for the commutation of 
the sentence of Joseph B. Buzzell of Brookfield, under sen- 
tence of death for the murder of Susan Hanson of that town. 
The attempt failed, but, upon notice, a motion was subsequently 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 183 

made to reconsider the vote by wMeh the House refused to 
allow the introduction of the measure, and Mr. Bingham was 
heard in forcible opposition to the motion, speaking on consti- 
tutional grounds and along the same lines as in the Weir case 
in 1864, to which he made reference in the course of his remarks. 

At the election in November, 1880, Harry Bingham and Wil- 
liam A. Richardson were chosen representatives in the Legis- 
lature from Littleton for the biennial session of 1881, when the 
House organized with Chester B. Jordan of Lancaster, now an 
honored ex-governor of the state, as speaker, he having received 
174 votes to 102 for George W. Cochrane of Farmington (now of 
Rochester), the Democratic candidate. Charles G. Emmons of 
Bristol was chosen clerk, and Edwin F. Jones of Manchester, as- 
sistant. General Marston was again chairman of the judiciary 
committee, and the speaker paid Mr. Bingham the graceful yet 
well merited compliment of naming him for second place, with 
William E. Chandler of Concord next in order, and Cochrane, 
Colby, Sanborn of Franklin, Frost of Dover, Hatch of Green- 
land, Heath of Manchester, Robinson of Concord, Eastman of 
Hampstead and Symonds of Keene, following in order. 

There was little of partisan controversy in the House during 
this session, but several questions came up for consideration 
which developed discussion, in which Mr. Bingham participated 
and in which he was heard with interest and given most respect- 
ful attention. Prominent among these was that bearing upon 
the election of a United States senator. The constitutional 
amendment of 1876, which went into effect in 1878, establishing 
biennial elections instead of annual, and changing the time there- 
of from March to November, so affected the situation that the 
Legislature chosen next preceding the expiration of the sena- 
torial term did not meet and organize until three months after 
such expiration, thus leaving a vacancy in the state's repre- 
sentation in the Senate for that length of time, or until the Leg- 
islature should organize and make choice of a senator, every 
year in which a senatorial term expired, or twice every six 
years. The contention was put up in some quarters that, under 
the circumstances, it became the duty of the Legislature last or- 
ganized before the expiration of the term to make choice of a 



184 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

senator, so that there should be no vacancy to be filled by ex- 
ecutive appointment, or to remain unfilled, as the case might 
be. This view, however, did not prevail in the Legislature of 
1878, which body failed to elect a successor to Senator Bain- 
bridge Wadleigh, whose term was to expire March 4, 1879, the 
choice being left to the Legislature of 1879, to be chosen at the 
then pending November election, which Legislature, when duly 
organized the following June, elected Henry W. Blair as sen- 
ator, the position having been filled in the interim by Hon- 
Charles H. Bell, under executive appointment, as similar va- 
cancies had previously been filled. Some of the earnest partisans 
of Senator Edward H. Eollins whose term was to expire March 
4, 1883, feeling that if choice were to be made at that time Mr. 
Rollins would be reasonably sure of reelection, and that changed 
conditions might render such result impossible two years later, 
initiated a movement in favor of the election of senator at this 
time. The question was mentioned in the governor's message 
and referred to the judiciary committee in the House, a ma- 
jority of whom reported, June 10, through Mr. Chandler, pre- 
senting the following resolution : 

Resolved, That the House will not go into the election of 
United States senator at this session, and that the subject be 
postponed to the next session of the Legislature. 

A minority, through Mr. Henry Robinson of Concord, re- 
ported the following : 

Resolved, 1st, That the New Hampshire Legislature now in 
session has the legal power and authority and is under the legal 
obligation to choose a senator in the Congress of the United 
States, for the full term to commence March 4, 1883. 

2d, That it is expedient to proceed with the election of United 
States senator on Tuesday, the 14th of June, next, according to 
law. 

These reports came up for discussion in the House, June 14, 
the majority report being sustained by Mr. Chandler, General 
Marston and Mr. Bingham, and the minority by Mr. Quint (Rev. 
Alonzo H.) of Dover, all speaking with earnestness and ability. 
Attention was called during the discussion to the fact that the 
Senate had asked the opinion of the Supreme Court upon the 
question of the right or duty of the Legislature in the premises, 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 185 

and, although it appeared that six of the seven justices had 
united in expressing the opinion that the Legislature then in 
session had the right to elect, that opinion was regarded as 
entitled to no more consideration than that of any six good law- 
yers, and certainly no more than that of an equal number of 
members of the judiciary committee of the House, and indeed, 
seemed to be resented by some because of the fact that the Sen- 
ate had presumed to ask for it without consulting the House or 
asking it to join in the request. The matter was brought to an 
issue upon the motion of Mr. Quint to amend the majority re- 
port by striking out the word "not" in the first clause, and all 
of the second clause. The yeas and nays being called on the 
question 118 members voted in the affirmative and 182 in the 
negative ; so the motion was lost and the matter practically dis- 
posed of, the majority report being subsequently adopted. The 
majority vote, it may be noted, included practically all the 
Democrats in the House, while substantially all the minority 
were Republicans, being an actual majority of that party in the 
House. Mr. Bingham's discussion was based wholly on legal 
and constitutional grounds. The Concord Monitor of June 16, 
referring to the subject, said: "As a constitutional exposition 
of the points involved the speech of Harry Bingham will take 
high rank. His defence of the majority report of the judiciary 
committee is admitted on all hands to have been masterly. ' ' 

On the 14th of July, a joint resolution appropriating $3,000 
for the New Hampshire Veterans Association for the construc- 
tion of barracks at The Weirs for the use of the association on 
"Reunion" occasions, being under consideration, and some op- 
position appearing, Mr. Bingham spoke in favor of the appro- 
priation, saying that while he was in favor of economy in the 
expenditure of the money of the state, he could not imagine a 
better purpose to which the money asked for in the resolution 
could be put. We have appropriated money to celebrate the 
battle of Yorktown, said he, and it is still more proper that 
these soldiers who took their lives in their hands should be en- 
abled to keep alive the memory of their valor. He had found 
that the soldiers of both armies became the best citizens, and 
nobody fraternized more heartily than these Union and Con- 



186 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

federate soldiers. He had no doubt that if the veterans of the 
state were provided with a suitable place on the shore of our 
beautiful lake, the Confederate soldiers would be welcomed 
there and good feeling would result. Not every one coincided 
with this opinion of Mr, Bingham at the time; yet only a few 
years passed after that before a distinguished Confederate gen- 
eral was an honored guest and leading speaker at the veterans' 
annual reunion at The Weirs! 

Only July 21 Mr. Bingham was heard upon a measure in- 
volving the taxation of church property, the proposition being 
the repeal of the then existing law taxing all church property 
over $10,000 in value. He took the ground that extravagant 
expenditure in church buildings was not in accordance with 
the example and teachings of the great founder of Chris- 
tianity, and ought not to be encouraged, and he expressed the be- 
lief that if such extravagance was resorted to, in direct opposi- 
tion to such example and teachings, those indulging therein 
ought not to object to paying taxes upon such investment. 

It was at this session that the bill extending the Dover and 
Winnipiseogee Railroad from Alton Bay to Laconia and The 
Weirs, otherwise known as the Lake Shore Railroad bill, was en- 
acted. Wide interest was taken in this bill, in different sections 
of the state, on the one side or the other, and considerable excite- 
ment prevailed, especially in the lake region. Mr. Bingham op- 
posed the measure, and spoke against it when it was under con- 
sideration, July 28, basing his opposition upon the feeling, largely 
prevailing in the northern portion of the state, to the effect that it 
was more desirable to develop the railroad system at the north, 
at that time, than to build this Lake Shore line, which would 
never accommodate a large amount of business. While not op- 
posing the project, per se, he believed it should be postponed till 
other projects, more essential to the development of the state, 
were carried out. 

Another question upon which Mr. Bingham was heard at some 
length and much force at this session was that of minority rep- 
resentation in corporations, a bill providing for which having 
been introduced, and which he supported in an earnest and pow- 
erful speech on the 17th of August, the measure being defeated, 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 187 

however, by a large majority, through the strong influence ex- 
erted over the Legislature by corporations, at that time, if not 
always. 

In the legislatures of 1883 and 1885 Mr. Bingham served as 
a member of the Senate for the Second or Grafton District, the 
opposing or Republican candidate over whom he was elected, 
being Alexander Warden for the former term, and Joseph M. 
Jackman for the latter. The Senate of 1883 included Irving 
W. Drew for District No. 1 ; David E. Willard, No. 3 ; Benja- 
min F. Perkins, No. 4; Jonathan M. Taylor, No. 5; Levi T, 
Haley, No. 6; Chester Pike, No. 7; Thomas Dinsmore, No. 8; 
Charles H. Amsden, No. 9; Henry Robinson, No. 10; Aaron 
Whittemore, No, 11; Charles W. Folsom, No. 12; George K, 
Harvey, No. 13 ; George G. Davis, No. 14 ; George W. Cummings, 
No. 15; George A. Wason, No. 16; Amos Webster, No. 17; 
Charles H. Bartlett, No. 18; Israel Dow, No. 19; Benjamin R. 
Wheeler, No. 20; Thomas F. French, No. 21; Lafayette Hall, 
No. 22; James F. Seavey, No. 23, and James Laighton, No. 24. 

Charles H. Bartlett* of Manchester was elected president of 
the Senate in 1883, Mr. Bingham being voted for by the Demo- 
cratic senators. Frank D. Currier, now representative in Con- 
gress from the Second District was elected clerk, and Ira A. 
Chase of Bristol, assistant clerk. 

The Fifth District was without representation when the Legis- 
lature assembled, Daniel S. Dinsmore of Laconia, the Repub- 
lican senator-elect, having died after the election and before 
the Legislature convened. Jonathan M. Taylor of Sanbomton, 
the Democratic nominee, and one David Shaw, who received four 



♦Charles H. Bartlett, born in Sunapee, October 15, 1833, died in Man- 
chester, January 25, 1900. He was educated in the academies at Wash- 
ington and New London, studied law with Metcalf & Barton at Newport, 
George & Foster in Concord, and Morrison & Stanley in Manchester, was 
admitted to the bar in 1858 and commenced practice at Wentworth, 
removing to Manchester in 1863 where he continued with much success. 
He was clerk of the New Hampshire Senate from 1861 to 1864, and of 
the United States District Court from 1867 to 1883. He also served as 
city solicitor in Manchester in 1867 and as mayor in 1883, resigning the 
latter office to accept that of United States commissioner. He was 
chosen to the Senate in the fall of 1882, and chosen president on the 
organization of that body the following year. He also served in the 
Constitutional Convention of 1876 and that of 1889. Dartmouth College 
conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1881. 



188 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

votes at the polls, being the constitutional candidates. When 
the matter of the vacancy was formally called to the attention 
of the House, and the latter body notified that the Senate was 
ready to go into convention for the purpose of electing a 
Senator, the Republican majority laid the matter on the table, 
and took no further notice of it, until after the Senate had 
been invited by the House to go into convention for the election 
of state officers, June 13, when a motion was made to meet the 
House in convention for such purpose. This motion was op- 
posed by Senator Bingham and Senator Drew, on the ground 
that it would be unconstitutional to do so until after the Fifth 
District vacancy was filled, and was defeated by a vote of 9 to 
11. It was not until June 19, when the time came to ballot for 
United States senator, that the House "came to time" and voted 
to go into convention with the Senate for the former purpose, 
which was done with the result that Mr. Taylor had 173 votes 
to 103 for Mr. Shaw, given by those Republicans who could not 
bring themselves to the point of voting for the man who had been 
the Democratic candidate in his district. 

Mr. Bingham was named by President Bartlett as a member 
of the judiciary committee, of which Senator Robinson was 
chairman, the other members being Senators Seavey, Cummings 
and Drew. He was also given the unusual distinction, for a 
minority member, of the chairmanship of the committee on re- 
vision of the laws, and named on the finance and election 
committees. He also served with Senator Robinson on the spe- 
cial committee to whom the message of the governor was re- 
ferred. 

This session of the Legislature was of unusual length, continu- 
ing until September 15, having been protracted because of the 
bitter and long-drawn struggle over the election of United States 
senator, resulting in the defeat of Edward H. Rollins for 
reelection, and the ultimate election of Austin F, Pike, and the 
fight over the "Colby bill," so-called, providing for the estab- 
lishment of railroad corporations by general law. 

On the ballot for United States senator in the Senate, Mr. 
Bingham, himself, who was the nominee of the Democratic leg- 
islative caucus, as on many previous occasions, received 6 votes, 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 189 

Mr. Rollins 10, Aaron F. Stevens 2, Oilman Marston 1, James F. 
Briggs 1 and William S. Ladd 1, the latter vote being given by- 
Mr. Bingham himself, who continued to vote for Judge Ladd 
throughout the entire contest. In the joint convention on the 
following day, June 20, Mr. Bingham received 119 votes, Ed- 
ward H. Eollins 113, James F. Briggs 29, James W. Patterson 
29, Aaron F. Stevens 17, Gilman Marston 11, Benjamin F. Pres- 
cott 2, Mason W. Tappan 1, Charles H. Bell 1, Person C. Cheney 
1 and William S. Ladd 1. The voting proceeded, daily, until 
August 2, Mr. Bingham always in the lead with the solid Demo- 
cratic vote, with Rollins leading all other Republicans until 
July 12, when, finding his election impossible, he withdrew, and 
William E. Chandler, starting with 52 votes, led the Republi- 
can contestants till July 27, when Austin F. Pike forged ahead 
with 65, and finally, on August 2, when two ballotings were 
had, was chosen on the second ballot, by 181 votes, to 112 for 
Mr. Bingham, 18 for Greneral Marston, 1 for Rollins, 1 for Ste- 
vens and 1 for Ladd. 

Ur. Bingham was among the earnest opponents of the ' ' Colby 
bill," and spoke at length against the measure when it came up 
for consideration in the Senate, September 5 ; no report, not even 
an abstract of his speech, is preserved, however, the proceed- 
ings of the Senate always being reported in the most condensed 
form by the newspapers, and the journals containing no debate ; 
so that, in fact, it can only be said of his work in the Senate, 
for both terms, that he did his duty, as usual, faithfully and 
well. It is safe to say, moreover, that at no time in the state's 
history was the legislation sent up from the House more care- 
fully scrutinized in the upper branch than during the two terms 
of Mr. Bingham's incumbency as a member of the latter body. 

Among the various amendments to the Colby biU, presented 
and rejected in the Senate before its final passage, by a vote of 
16 to 8, was one offered by Mr. Bingham, providing that ''in 
case the Concord Railroad shall be leased to, or united with, 
any other railroad or railroads, the Supreme Court shall appoint 
three appraisers who shall appraise the value of the right of the 
state to take the Concord Railroad, and also the entire value of 
the same, and, in case of a lease, a part of the rental shall be 



190 HARRY BIXGHAil MEMORIAL. 

paid to the state, corresponding to the proportion that such ap- 
praised value of the interest of the state bears to such appraised 
value of the railroad; and in case of union the stat€ shall be 
paid for its interest so appraised, in the stock of the new cor- 
poration. ' ' 

In the Senate of 1885, Mr. Bingham had as associates, Henry 0. 
Kent of District Xo. 1 ; Elias H. Cheney. Xo. 3 : Manson Brown, 
Xo. 4: John F. Taylor. Xo. 5: Asa M. Brackett. Xo. 6: Chester 
Pike, Xo. 7; John S. Collins. Xo. 8: T^alter S. Davis. Xo. 9; 
Lyman D. Stevens, Xo. 10: Jonathan F. Berry, Xo. 11; Thomas 
G. Jameson, X'o. 12 ; "William P. Chamberlain, X"o. 13 ; Murray 
Davis, X'o. 14; Peter H. Clark, Xo. 15; WilUam H. TV. Hinds, 
Xo. 16 ; Hiram T. Morrill. Xo. 17 ; Abraham P. Olzendam, Xo. 18 ; 
Edwin H. Hobbs, Xo. 19; Jesse Gault, Xo. 20; Xathaniel H. 
Clark, Xo.' 21; John Hatch, Xo. 22; William H. Morton, Xo. 
23; Moses H. Goodrich, X'o. 24. It will be seen that the only 
one of the former Senate reelected, aside from Mr. Bingham, was 
Senator Pike* of X'o. 7, who was chosen president, Mr. Bingham 
receiving the seven votes of his Democratic associates for the 
same office. Messrs. Currier and Chase were respectively 
reelected clerk and assistant clerk. 

The chairman of the judiciary committee of the Senate this 
year was Senator Stevens t of District X'o. 10, Mr. Bingham again 
holding second place, as well as the chairmanship of the com- 
mittee on revision of the laws, and membership on the finance 



♦Chester Pike, born in Cornish, July 30, 1S29, died in that town 
November 29, 1897. He was educated in the public school and Hart- 
land (Vt.) and Kimball Union Academies. He taught school winters in 
youth, and ultimately engaged very extensively in agriculture and the 
buying and selling of cattle and other farm products; also in lumbering. 
He also took an active parr in politics, was a commissioner for Sullivan 
County in 1859, 1860 and 1861, and a representative in the Legislature 
in 1862 and 1863. In the latter year he was appointed United States 
provost marshal for the Third New Hampshire District. Subsequently 
he was United States collector of internal revenue. He was chosen 
to the State Senate from the Seventh or Sullivan District for 1883, and 
1885, serving as president the latter year. He was an active member 
of various agricultural societies, and many years president of the Con- 
necticut River Society. 

tLyman Dewey Stevens, bom in Piermont, September 20, 1821, died 
in Concord, March 26, 1909. He was educated at Haverhill Academy 
and Dartmouth College, graduating from the latter in 1843. He taught 
for a time, then studied law with the late Hon. Ira Perley, and was 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 191 

committee. His association in the judiciary committee, of 
which the other members were Senators Davis, Chamberlain 
and Kent, was especially pleasant from the fact that Senator 
Stevens, the chairman, -svith whom he had also served in the 
House, was an old college friend and classmate, with whom he 
had always maintained most cordial relations although dif- 
fering with him radically, in political matters. 

This session, so far as the Senate was concerned, was char- 
acterized by no exciting controversy or serious debate, and 
was generally known as a working session. It was during this 
session, it may be noted, that the measure providing for the 
town school system, and the abolition of the old time districts, 
was enacted, but it should also be noted that Mr. Bingham was 
among the most earnest in his opposition to the measure, in 
conformity with his well settled conviction that the closer the 
contact of the individual citizen with the control of public af- 
fairs, the safer the liberties of the people. 

Mr. Bingham was not a member of either branch of the Leg- 
islature of 1887 — the length of whose session, by the way, ex- 
ceeded that of any other in the history of the state, being pro- 
tracted, mainly, on account of the great railroad contest in 
which the Hazen and Atherton bills, so called, were at the front 
— the former backed by the Boston and Maine and the latter by 
the Concord Railroad interests. He was present in Concord, 
however, during a considerable part of the session, as counsel 
for the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad, in which 
capacity he opposed the Hazen bill and supported the Atherton 
bill. The Hazen bill, which, as will be recalled, ultimately 
passed, with certain amendments, though repudiated by its 
nominal sponsor, only to be vetoed by Gov. Charles H. Saw- 
yer, was designed to authorize the leasing of practically all other 
roads in the state by the Boston and Maine ; while the Atherton 



admitted to the bar iu 1847, commencing practice in Concord and there 
continuing. He was city solicitor in 1855 and 185G; a member of the 
House of Representatives in 1860, 1864, 1866 and 1867; mayor of Con- 
cord in 1868 and 1869; a presidential elector in 1872; a member of the 
executive council in ISSl, and of the State Senate in 1885. He was 
active in banlting and educational affairs, and deeply interested in all 
matters of public concern. 



192 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

bill authorized tlie leasing of the Boston, Concord and Montreal 
and other northern lines by the Concord. 

The principal argument before the railroad committee of the 
House, in opposition to the former and in support of the latter 
was made by Mr. Bingham, on the evenings of August 10 and 
11, two hours being occupied each evening, or four hours in 
all, in its presentation, the hall of the House being filled by mem- 
bers and other interested parties; while the closing argument 
for the Hazen bill was made by Gen. Charles H. Burns of Wil- 
ton, counsel for the Boston and Maine. Both were masterly 
productions in their line, that of General Burns being the more 
ornate and rhetorical; while that of Mr. Bingham was a clear 
cut, logical presentation of fact and argument, without verbal 
embellishment or impassioned appeal, in accordance with the 
usual style of the speaker. 

In the Legislature of 1889, whose session was the last held in 
the summer season (the Constitutional Convention of the pre- 
vious winter having provided for a change from June to Jan- 
uary in the time of meeting and the people ratifying the same 
at the next election), although the town of Littleton, which 
had been politically exceedingly close for a number of years, 
had then passed into Republican control, Mr. Bingham was 
again representative, but had a Republican colleague in the 
person of Mr, Isaac Calhoun. The House this year organized 
by the choice of Hiram D. Upton* as speaker, he receiving 170 
votes to 134 for Oliver E. Branch of Weare, who was the min- 
ority candidate. George A. Dickey was elected clerk, and Ste- 
phen S. Jewett , assistant clerk. General Marston was again 
chairman of the judiciary committee, with Mr. Bingham sec- 



*Hirain D. Upton, born at East Jaffrey May 5, 1859, died in Man- 
chester December 1, 1900. He was educated at Appleton Academy, 
New Ipswich, Kimball Union Academy, and Dartmouth College, gradu- 
ating from the latter in 1879. He entered the service of the Monadnock 
Bank, at East Jaffrey, and soon became cashier, continuing till 1886, 
when he went to Minnesota and became president of the Northwestern 
Trust Co. at Fargo. This was, later, merged in the New Hampshire 
Trust Co., doing business at Manchester, of which he was at first 
treasurer and later president, till its collapse. He was also extensively 
engaged in real estate operations in Manchester. He was elected to 
the Legislature of 1889, and made speaker of the House. He was presi- 
dent of the Republican State Convention in 1893. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 193 

ond, and Messrs. Sanborn of Franklin, Sulloway of Manchester, 
Branch, Heath of Manchester, Faulkner of Keene, Holt of 
Claremont, Chamberlin of Berlin, Huntington of Hanover and 
Collins of Gilsum following, in order. 

There was little in the line of partisan controversy during the 
session, but a good deal of general legislation was attempted, and 
a considerable amount carried through. Among measures which 
did not pass, however, in which Mr. Bingham took an interest, 
were a proposed Australian or secret ballot law, and a license 
law — ^the former being postponed to the next session of the 
Legislature, while the latter, which was earnestly supported by 
Mr. Bingham, and which he advocated vigorously on the floor in 
the final debate on August 14, was defeated outright by a final 
vote of 118 to 144. He had long regarded the prohibitory law 
as a practical failure, not enacted to be enforced, and retained 
upon the statute book for partisan purposes only, to be used, by 
officials, as a sort of "club" with which to compel support 
of the Republican party by the liquor interests of the state, and 
he always favored the enactment of a stringent license law in 
its place, in the interests of temperance. 

Another measure upon which he is recorded as speaking at this 
session, and which he strongly but unsuccessfully opposed, be- 
cause of the principle involved and the precedent which its en- 
actment would establish, was one authorizing the town of New- 
port to exempt from taxation a projected water works system. 
Mr. Bingham took the ground that as this was a purely pri- 
vate enterprise to be entered upon with the primary purpose 
of earning money for the investors, the business should be taxed 
like any other. General Marston took the same position, but the 
bill eventually passed and became a law, and many similar meas- 
ures have since been enacted. 

It was this Legislature that was strongly memorialized for 
some proper and permanent tribute to the memory of Gen. John 
Stark, and, on the ninth of July, a special committee was ap- 
pointed, in the House, to take the matter under consideration. 
Of this committee Mr. Bingham was chairman, the other mem- 
bers being. General Marston, Lord of Manchester, Smith of 
Alstead, Larrabee of Pembroke, Phipps of Milan, Garvin of 



194 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Wolfeboro, Leavitt of Sanbomton, Newton of Unity and Ben- 
nett of Farmington. This committee finally presented a joint 
resolution appropriating $12,000 for a suitable statue of General 
Stark, and recommended its passage. On its third reading, 
August 13, decided opposition developed under the leadership of 
Smith of Laconia. Mr. Bingham addressed the House earnestly, 
in support of the measure, saying that the object was one which, 
should appeal to all patriotic citizens, and it certainly could not 
be contended, in view of appropriations already made, that the 
state was unable to provide for such memorial. The fame of 
the state is due largely, he said, to the fame of her soldiery, yet, 
thus far, not a single statue has been erected to any of her mili- 
tary heroes. The New Hampshire man whose heart is not thrilled 
when he recalls the brave deeds of its soldiers, of whom General 
Stark was a fitting type, must be cold indeed. His memory 
deserves and should receive this mark of recognition. Mr. 
Branch of Weare followed in a strong appeal in behalf of the 
resolution, which finally passed by a substantial vote, and the 
outcome was the statue of General Stark which now stands in the 
state house park. 

The Legislature of 1889 was the body which was summoned 
to meet in special session by Governor Goodell, upon the urgent 
demand of the Republican party leaders, on the second day of 
December, 1890, just before the expiration of its term of ser- 
vice, ostensibly on account of ''grave public exigencies" but 
really to make sure of a clerk of the House upon whom the 
leaders in question could depend in the making up of the roll of 
membership of the incoming House. At the election in Novem- 
ber previous there had been no choice of governor by the people, 
the election, thereby, going over to the incoming Legislature, 
while there was question as to the right to seats in the House of 
two classes of members-elect — ^those chosen on account of in- 
crease in population in their respective towns and wards, under 
the census then just taken, who were generally known as the 
"if entitled" members, and those chosen in towns which had 
formerly been ' * classed, ' ' but which, under the new Constitution, 
just adopted, were authorized to elect only in certain years to 
be designated by the Legislature, the previous Legislature hav- 



LEGI8LATIYE SERVICE. 195 

ing failed to make such designation. The exclusion of the 
former class, and the inclusion of the latter would give con- 
trol of the Legislature to the Democrats, and carry with it the 
election of Charles H. Amsden, the candidate of that party as 
governor; while the inclusion of the former and the exclusion 
of the latter would put the Republicans in legislative control 
and insure the choice of Hiram A. Tuttle, their gubernatorial 
nominee, as chief magistrate. 

There was doubt in the minds of some of the Eepublican lead- 
ers as to their ability to control George A. Dickey, then clerk 
of the House. Although a Republican he was thought to be a 
fair-minded and independent man, who in his official action 
would do what he considered right, regardless of purely partisan 
interests. Finally, as he had moved outside the state (though 
he might still have claimed a residence for political purposes 
had he been disposed to do so) he was persuaded to send in his 
resignation as clerk. This left the office vacant. There was no 
doubt of the position of Stephen S. Jewett, the assistant clerk. 
He was to be depended upon by his party leaders in any emerg- 
ency ; but there was doubt as to his right to act as clerk under the 
cirmumstances. It was determined to take no chances, and the 
special session was called simply for the purpose of making Mr. 
Jewett clerk, which was done, and practically nothing else was 
done during the four days of the session, no legislation of any 
kind, bearing on the situation being carried through or at- 
tempted; though a new chairman of the judiciary committee, 
in place of General Marston, M^ho had died since the close of 
the regular session, was named at the outset, by the speaker, in 
the person of one George W. Cummings of Francestown, never 
before prominent in legislation, but regarded as a "safe" man 
from the party standpoint. This was done to provide against 
emergencies, since Mr. Bingham, who ranked next to General 
Marston on the committee as constituted, would otherwise have 
been the chairman. It became the sad privilege of the latter 
to introduce from the committee at this session, a resolution of 
respect to the memory of his long time friend and associate— the 
distinguished lawyer, soldier and legislator — Gen. Gilman Mars- 
ton, which was unanimously adopted. 



196 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

The legislative session of 1891, opening on the first Wednesday 
in January, under the amended Constitution — the first of the 
regular winter sessions, was the last in which Mr. Bingham took 
part, his Littleton colleagues for the session being Israel C. 
Richardson and Leslie F. Bean, both Democrats, that party being 
again in the ascendant in the town, by a close vote. 

The meeting of the Legislature had been awaited with unusual 
interest, not to say anxiety or excitement, and in some quarters 
fears of violent demonstrations were entertained and expressed, 
in view of the counter claims of the opposing parties as to the 
rightful control of the House. An attempt had been made on 
the part of the Democrats to secure the intervention of the Su- 
preme Court, a petition for an injunction having been filed by 
Mr. Bingham, in behalf of himself and others, to restrain Clerk 
Jewett from placing upon the roll of the House the names of the 
so-called "if entitled" members-elect. A special term of court 
had just been held, in which arguments for and against the peti- 
tion, by eminent counsel, had been heard, Mr. Bingham himself 
making the final argument on behalf of the petitioners, no re- 
port of which was ever published, but which was characterized 
by those who heard it as remarkably strong and vigorous. The 
court — six of the seven justices concurring. Judge Blodgett 
alone declining to express an opinion, — had refused to interfere, 
on ground of ''no jurisdiction," which outcome had unquestion- 
ably operated to strengthen the Republican position in the pop- 
ular mind, and encouraged Clerk Jewett to proceed with the 
Republican plan in preparing the roll of the House, if indeed 
he had ever felt any hesitation in the matter which is scarcely 
probable. At all events that plan was carried out to the letter. 
The names of the "if entitled" contingent were placed on the 
roll, and those of the members from the former classed towns 
omitted, thus insuring a good working Republican majority, at 
the start. All attempts on the part of the Democrats to balk 
the plans of their opponents failed, utterly. The clerk upon 
calling the House to order refused to entertain any motion made 
by Mr. Bingham or any Democratic member, claiming that noth- 
ing else was in order until an organization was effected, and 
an attempt by Mr. Bingham to put a motioin himself was utterly 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 197 

abortive in the midst of the confusion and uproar that prevailed, 
and, in view of the well understood fact that armed policemen 
were scattered through the building, awaiting the call of the 
clerk, in case any determined interference with the plan of or- 
ganization were entered upon, there was nothing to be done, 
under the circumstances, but submit, regardless of the question 
of right involved. The House was organized by the election of 
Frank G. Clarke*, the Republican candidate for speaker, by 177 
votes, to 152 for Edward B. S. Sanborn, the Democratic nomi- 
nee. Mr. Jewett was reelected clerk and William Tutherly, Jr., 
assistant clerk. 

The chairmanship of the judiciary committee went to James 
F. Briggs* of Manchester, with Mr. Bingham next in rank, fol- 
lowed by Sanborn, Sulloway of Manchester, Heath of Man- 
chester, Green, Spring of Lebanon, Holmes of Keene, Holman 
of Hillsborough, Davis of Warner, Nash of Conway and Taft 
of Greenville. 

It was at this session that the secret, or Australian ballot law 
of the state was enacted. A strong effort had been made in 



*Frank G. Clarke, boru iu Wilton September 10, 1850, died at Peter- 
borough January 9, 1901. He fitted for college at Meriden, and gradu- 
ated from Dartmouth in 1873. He studied law with Col. Albert S. Scott 
at Peterborough, was admitted to the bar in 1876, and engaged in 
practice as a partner of Colonel Scott, continuing till the death of the 
latter. He served on the staff of Grov. Samuel W. Hale, was elected 
to the Legislature of 1885 from Peterborough and to the State Senate 
of 1889. Again elected to the House for 1901, he was chosen speaker. 
He was chosen as representative in Congress from the Second District 
in 1896 and re-elected in 1898. 

*James F. Briggs, born in Bury, Lancashire, England, October 23, 
1827, died in Manchester, N. H., January 21, 1905. His father re- 
moved to America when James was an infant, and finally located at 
Holderness, now Ashland, in this state, where he engaged in manu- 
facturing, and the son grew up, attending school for a time at Newbury, 
Vt., and Sanbornton Bridge, now Tilton. He studied law with Joseph 
Burrows at Plymouth, and Nehemiah Butler at Penacook, was admitted 
to the bar in 1851, and located in practice at Hillsborough, which town 
he represented in the Legislature, as a Democrat, in 1857, 1858 and 1859. 
He enlisted in the Union service in the Civil War, serving as quarter- 
master of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment. After the war he es- 
tablished his law practice in Manchester, coming to the House as a Re- 
publican in 1874, and the State Senate in 1876. He was a representative 
in Congress from 1877 to 1885, was again chosen to the Legislature in 
1883, in 1891, and in 1897, being speaker the latter year. He was a 
delegate in the Constitutional Conventions of 1889 and 1902, 



198 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

behalf of such a measure at the previous session, but the matter 
went over, a special committee, consisting of Messrs. Branch of 
Weare, Greene of Hopkinton and Steams of Rindge, having 
been appointed to consider the subject, and report to the next 
Legislature. This report came in strongly recommending the 
adoption of the secret voting plan, and accompanied by a bill, 
prepared by the committee, designed to carry it into effect. 
This bill and report, along with several other bills of like im- 
port, introduced by different members, were referred to a special 
committee consisting of George F. Page of Ward 4, Concord, 
Mr. Bingham, Greene, Steele of Dover, Heath, Pillsbury (L. H.) 
of Derry, Jewell of South Hampton, Woodbury of Bedford, 
Young of Landaff, Gray of Jackson, Eastman of Weare, and 
Cofi&n of Dummer. 

This committee labored long and earnestly, but was unable 
to come to an agreement. Finally a majority report recommend- 
ing a carefully drawn measure prepared by Mr. Bingham was 
presented by him; while a minority, consisting of four members 
— Messrs. Page, Pillsbury, Coffin and Jewell, united in recom- 
mending a measure prepared by Mr. Page and generally known 
as the "Page bill," which bill was ultimately passed by the 
House and became the law, the minority being substituted for 
the majority report, notwithstanding the greater number, ex- 
perience and prestige of the committee supporters of the other 
measure. This result came about largely through the zeal and 
earnestness of Mr. Page, who had taken great interest and 
pride in his work, and succeeded in convincing Republican mem- 
bers quite generally (though his measure was not without Demo- 
cratic support) that his bill was preferable to the other from 
the party standpoint. 

It was at this, his last session in the Legislature, in which, 
however, he was no less active or vigilant in the discharge of 
his duties as a servant of the people than he had been at any 
time in his long career as a member of the law-making body, 
that Mr. Bingham, who had been the candidate of his party in 
the Legislature for United States senator for many years, feeling 
that the compliment of the nomination should now go elsewhere, 
declined the further use of his name in such connection. 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 199 

It was this withdrawal on his part that inspired the Concord 
Monitor, which seldom had a word of commendation for any 
Democrat, to publish the following editorial, appearing under 
the caption, *'A Kind Farewell to Harry Bingham," in its 
issue of January 20, 1891 : 

The withdrawal as senatorial candidate of Mr. Bingham 
leads us to speak of his merits without dwelling upon his faults. 
His political principles have been utterly antagonistic to Re- 
publican opinions. But he has ever been open and manly. No 
deception or subterfuge has ever characterized his course. He 
has hit out from the shoulder like a fair and courageous fighter, 
and he is to be respected as one of the strongest men, intellec- 
tually, whom the state has produced. He has a logical mind 
and wonderful power of statement, equal to, if not exactly like 
that possessed in so great a manner by his lifelong associate and 
friend, Gilman Marston, 

Mr. Bingham's last argument, that before the court, in favor 
of its jurisdiction, to order the clerk of the House, the creation 
of the statute, to make up the roll exactly as the statute required, 
was a brief masterpiece of legal reasoning and convinced many 
minds. His legal efforts have all been of a high character; his 
politics have always been consistent, and his methods in the 
main have been public and honorable. He and they are to be 
superseded by Mr. Sinclair and new methods of which we shall 
shortly have occasion to speak. But it is doubtful whether any 
greater success for the Democracy will result from the change of 
leadership. Mr. Bingham has always been at the open front of 
battle, his political opponents have recognized his ability and 
courage, he has been a conspicuous and commanding figure be- 
fore the people of the state; and Republicans can afford to bid 
him farewell with feelings not unmixed with admiration, and 
with no unkind wishes concerning the future of his long and 
laborious life. 



In addition to his extended service in the Legislature, Mr. 
Bingham represented Littleton as one of its delegates in the 
Constitutional Convention of 1876, his associates from that town 
being Col. Cyrus Eastman and John Farr. Many of the ablest 
men in the state were included in the membership of the con- 
vention, which was presided over by Hon. Daniel Clark of 
Manchester, judge of the United States District Court, a former 



200 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

member and president pro tern of the United States Senate, with 
Thomas J. Smith of Dover as clerk and Alpheus W. Baker of 
Lebanon, assistant clerk. 

Among the more prominent delegates were Greenleaf Clarke 
of Atkinson, Gilman Marston and William W. Stickney of Exe- 
ter, John S. H. Frink of Greenland, Ichabod Goodwin, James W. 
Emery, W. H. Y. Haekett and Daniel Marcy of Portsmouth, 
Samuel M. Wheeler and George B. Spaulding of Dover, George 
N. Eastman of Farmington, Nichols V. Whitehouse of Rochester, 
George W. Burleigh of Somersworth, Benjamin J. Oole of 
Gilford, Thomas J. Whipple of Laconia, Bradbury C. Tuttle 
of Meredith, George W. M. Pitman of Bartlett, W. H. H. Mason 
of Moultonboro, Sanborn B. Carter and Samuel D. Quarles of 
Ossipee, John W. Sanborn of Wakefield, John M. Shirley of 
Andover, John W. Morse of Bradford, Jacob H. Gallinger, Jona- 
than E. Sargent, John Kimball, William E. Chandler and 
Benjamin A. Kimball of Concord, Isaac N. Blodgett and E. B. 
S. Sanborn of Franklin, Aaron Whittemore of Pembroke, Nehe- 
miah G. Ordway of Warner, Nathan C. Jameson of Antrim, 
Frederick Smyth, James F. Briggs, Charles H. Bartlett and 
Nathan Parker of Manchester, Charles G. Smith of Mont Vernon, 
George A. Ramsdell and Cornelius J. Dearborn of Nashua, 
Albert S. Scott and Ezra M. Smith of Peterboro, John M. Parker 
of Fitzwilliam, Daniel W. Bill of Gilsum, Charles J. Amidon 
of Hinsdale, Francis A. Faulkner and Silas Hardy of Keene, 
John Q. Jones of Marlow, John S. Walker of Claremont, Chester 
Pike of Cornish, Levi W. Barton and Dexter Richards of New- 
port, Daniel N. Adams of Springfield, William C. Sturoc of 
Sunapee, John G. Sinclair of Bethlehem, George W. Murray of 
Canaan, Samuel B. Page of Haverhill, John L. Spring of Leba- 
non, Michael M. Stevens of Lisbon, Joseph Burrows and Nathan 
H. Weeks of Plymouth, George F. Putnam of Warren, Jeremiah 
Blodgett of Wentworth, Hazen Bedel of Colebrook, Nathan R. 
Perkins of Jefferson, Jacob Benton and William Burns of 
Lancaster. 

The convention met Wednesday, December 6, and adjourned 
Saturday, the 16th. 

During this time the Constitution was taken up and consid- 



LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 201 

eredi by article and section, consecutively in committee of the 
whole, and such amendments as were agreed upon referred to 
the appropriate committees to be put in proper form for final 
adoption. Of these committees there were four, on the follow- 
ing subjects: 

1. The Bill of Rights, the Executive Department and the 
Religious Test. 

2. The Legislative Department. 

3. The Judicial Department. 

4. Future Mode of Amending the Constitution and Miscel- 
laneous Matters. 

Each committee consisted of twenty members, two from each 
county, and Mr. Bingham was assigned to the chairmanship of 
the most important of all, that on Legislative Department, whose 
membership, aside from himself, included Johnson of Enfield, 
Healey of Stratham, Clarke of Atkinson, Smith of Strafford, 
Burleigh of Somersworth, Whipple of Laconia, Cole of Gilford, 
Pitman of Bartlett, Hubbard of Tamworth, Flanders of Wilmot, 
Colby of New London, Smith of Mont Vernon, Briggs of Man- 
chester, Bemis of Harrisville, Albee of Winchester, Adams of 
Springfield, Pike of Cornish, Bedel of Colebrook and Bfown of 
Whitefield. 

Mr. Bingham was the first member called to the chair to pre- 
side over the deliberations of the convention in committee of the 
whole. He was also in the chair when, near the close of the 
session, a resolution of thanks to President Clark was intro- 
duced by Mr. Frink of Greenland. As chairman of one of the 
important committees he was particularly busy throughout the 
session, but he was not active in debate, and was heard on few 
occasions. He vigorously opposed a proposition to so amend 
the Constitution as to require the support of ten members in 
order to render effective a call for the yeas and nays in the 
House of Representatives, and the proposition was defeated. 
He earnestly supported a resolution introduced by Samuel 
P. Jackson of Manchester, providing for minority representation 
through the adoption of the cumulative voting system whenever 
three or more officers of the same grade were to be voted for. 
He characterized the measure as the most important that could 



202 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

come before the convention, going on to illustrate by reference 
to the choice of members of the Legislature, showing that the 
minority in any town or ward, where by resort to this system 
they could insure the election of one or more representatives, 
would be led, almost invariably, to nominate the very ablest men 
they could put in the field, and the result would be that the 
majority would be practically driven to take a similar course; 
and thus the general standing of the House would be vastly 
improved. The resolution failed to pass, however, a yea and 
nay vote, demanded by Mr. Bingham, showing 95 yeas to 215 
nays. It may be noted that party lines had nothing to do with 
the division, some of the strongest Republicans voting in the 
affirmative and many prominent Democrats in the negative. 

This convention submitted thirteen amendments, in all, to 
the people, to be voted upon at the next March election, of which 
all but two were ratified by the requisite two-thirds vote, and 
those two — striking the word "Protestant" from the Bill of 
Rights, and prohibiting removals from office for political reasons 
— barely failed. The most important ones adopted were those 
increasing the membership of the Senate from twelve to twenty- 
four, reducing that of the House by establishing a population 
basis of representation with a requirement of 600 inhabitants 
for a, single representative and 1200 additional for each addi- 
tional representative, making elections biennial instead of annual 
and legislative sessions the same, changing the time of the elec- 
tion from March to November, and abolishing the religious test 
as a qualification for office. 



ADDRESSES. 



[In. the following pages are presented various public addresses, 
memorial tributes, etc., prepared and delivered by Mr. Bingham at 
different times and occasions during the last thirty years of his life.] 



THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR AND THE INEVITABLE 
CONSEQUENCES OF THE GENERAL DISFRAN- 
CHISEMENT OF THE SOUTHERN WHITES AND 
THE INDISCRIMINATE AND PREMATURE ENFRAN- 
CHISEMENT OF THE SOUTHERN BLACKS. 

Address at Concord, N. H., as President of the Democratic 
State Convention, January 5, 1870. 

Gentlemen of the Convention: 

I thank you for this mark of your confidence, although I un- 
dertake with much hesitation to preside over your deliberations 
upon the present occasion. 

We are here today as the representatives of the Democratic 
party — a party as old as the Nation — a party which administered 
the government for more than half a century, and during all 
that time guarded well the Constitution, secured to the people the 
full and perfect enjoyment of civil liberty, and gave to the 
country a greater progress and a larger material prosperity than 
what has fallen, in any age of the world, to the lot of any 
other country under Heaven. We are here to renew our vows of 
allegiance to Democratic principles, and to put in nomination 
candidates to be supported in the approaching state election. 
We are here to appeal once more to the people — to ask them to 
look at the sad and sorrowful condition of the country under 
Radical rule, and to contrast the same with the former happy 
condition of the country when its government was administered 
by a law-abiding, constitution-loving, patriotic party. 

Under Radical rule the land has been scourged with a Civil 



204 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

War at a cost of blood and treasure without parallel in the his- 
tory of the world ; under Radical rule we have been plunged in 
a sea of debt which is shoreless, and of depth unfathomable. A 
huge moneyed power has been created, compared to which the 
old United States Bank, that perished beneath the iron heel of 
Andrew Jackson, was an insignificant affair. A most unjust, un- 
equal and iniquitous system of taxation has been imposed on the 
people, whereby the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer. 
The capitalists are feasting and fattening and gloating over 
their fast accumulating hoards, while the laboring masses are be- 
ing pinched harder and harder every day. 

One pillar after another of the Constitution is being battered 
down; states are abolished, put under military rule, recon- 
structed and then abolished again ; courts are suspended, ignored, 
defied, summarily ousted from their jurisdictions. A Radical, 
usurping, omnipotent Congress has seized all the powers of the 
government, and tyrannizes with absolute sway over states and 
over the people. For the purpose of so degrading the masses of 
the people that they will tolerate Radical slavery, they have been 
put either on equality with or beneath the Negro — an inferior 
race who do not possess the seeds of progress, and who are bar- 
barous by nature. Because the Radical can control the negro, 
and make him carry ballots as his old master made him carry 
spades, he can be relied upon to vote the Radical ticket; there- 
fore he is loyal and must be enfranchised. But because the 
white cannot be relied upon to vote the Radical ticket, therefore 
he is disloyal and must be disfranchised. To perpetuate Radical 
supremacy, the ignorant, savage negro is made the political mas- 
ter of the educated, civilized white man. To perpetuate Radical 
supremacy, the heathenism and cannibalism of Africa are ex- 
alted above the Christianity and civilization of Europe and 
America. 

We are told by Radical philosophers, I believe, that the negro 
is inferior because he never had a chance to be otherwise. If 
you would know what the negro is, what his capabilities are as 
a governing power, what he would do if he had a chance, you 
must go to the shores of Guinea, and into the interior of Africa, 
where the negro has had all the chances there are — where he 



ADDRESSES. 205 

has held undisputed sway since the world began. There you 
will find the negro today what he always has been, what he 
always will be w^hen left to himself, an unmitigated savage, liv- 
ing like the gorilla, the monkey and the wild animals by which 
he is surrounded, upon the spontaneous productions of the soil. 
The only thing that remains to be done to complete the overthrow 
of the republic and to inaugurate an imperial, consolidated 
government is to secure the ratification by the people of what 
has been done, and the completion of what is now well nigh 
finished. 

The steady front presented by the Democratic party has re- 
tarded the work of overthrowing our free instituions, and to 
them is the nation indebted for having a foothold left whereby 
the people now, if they mil, may reestablish the Constitution and 
regain their lost liberty. The questions between the political 
parties are narrowing down so that he who runs may read. The 
questions are upon the ratification of the works of Radicalism. 
Shall they be endorsed and free government abolished ? Or shall 
they be repudiated? 

These Radicals talk about peace — they mean no such thing; 
they know that peace to this country — real, genuine peace — 
is death to them. This Radical party was born of the very causes 
that produced the late rebellion ; was nursed and grew fat upon 
the war, and has since kept itself in existence by tearing open 
the bloody gashes made by the war. There can be no peace, 
no restored prosperity, no union, no safety for our liberties or 
security for our dearest rights, so long as Radicalism rules the 
nation. 

We look to the next presidential election for the consummation 
of our relief. In the meantime we must be getting ready for the 
momentous struggle. New Hampshire can do something. She 
must and will do something. Her glorious past political history 
rises from out our memory before our eyes and reproaches us 
with the alarming political degeneracy of these days. The shades 
of New Hampshire's illustrious dead are continually beckoning 
us forward in the path of duty. Long enough already have we 
suffered the land of Stark, of "Woodbury, of Atherton and of 
the Pierces to be dominated over by that party which stole the 



206 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

power in the first place by seducing men in the night time into 
dark places, and there filling them with false alarms, and then 
binding them by oaths to work in secrecy and darkness, and 
which has maintained possession of the power so won by out- 
rages upon the Constitution, by bribery, by force, by fraud upon 
the ballot-box, and by wholesale corruption generally. The cup 
of Radical iniquity is full to the brim. It must be the case, as 
surely as there is a just God in Heaven, that the day of retribu- 
tion draweth nigh — that the day of national emancipation from 
the thraldom of Radical slavery is at hand. It is only necessary 
that the great Democratic party should keep its heart, should 
hold on to its principles, its integrity and its pluck, that it should 
never say die. 

G-entlemen, let us never give up the ship. Let us cling to 
the Democratic party as the sole remaining guardian of the 
Constituion of our beloved country — as the only hope whereby 
civil liberty can be restored to these oppressed and suffering 
states. 



AMNESTY AND RESTORATION FOR THE SOUTH: 
PEACE AND RECONCILIATION BETWEEN THE 
SECTIONS.^ 

An Address on Taking the Chair as President of the Demo- 
cratic State Convention, at Concord^ September 11, 1872, 

Gentlemen of the Convention : 

Once more we are met face to face by the responsibility of 
choosing a president of the United States. This election occurs 
under circumstances more than ordinarily critical. What is 
now done necessarily must make a permanent impression on the 
future of this government, and give a lasting shape to its policy. 

The ideas and principles that have been molten in the red hot 
crucible of revolution, are now taking the form into which they 
are about to harden and thereafterwards endure. And now, 
when the transmission process to which our political institutions 
have been subjected is well nigh completed, it is of the utmost 



^ This address was printed in a broadside and published as a campaign docu- 
ment. 



ADDRESSES. 207 

importance that the policy of the government should be put on 
the right basis. 

The preservation of liberty and of self-government, impera- 
tively demands that a clear-headed statesman, of broad views 
and of downright old-fashioned honesty, be put to the helm of the 
Ship of State. 

For such a statesman our country at this time calls, and calls 
most loudly. Where is he ? Most certainly it is not he that lives 
at Long Branch in the midst of dogs, horses and cigars and 
brandy punches in summer, and who winters in about the same 
style at the White House. Nobody will or can claim it is Ulysses 
S. Grant. Every intelligent man and woman in all this broad 
land, without distinction of party, knows that Ulysses S. Grant 
is not fit to be president of the United States. 

At the same time, everybody knows that a most corrupt, 
unscrupulous and powerful ring has taken possession of this 
government, and in the name of Ulysses Grant are running its 
machinery, stealing from its treasury and prostituting all its 
powers to the ignoble business of reelecting themselves. Every 
conceivable form of abuse which unlimited fraud and corruption 
can devise crops out everywhere in the management of the busi- 
ness of the government. Frauds enough to damn forty adminis- 
trations to eternal infamy have been unearthed and published 
to the world, yet no one doubts that the great body of misdoings 
of this administration remains to be hereafter told. 

So strong is the popular conviction of the unfitness of the 
present incumbent of the presidential office for the position he 
holds, and of the dangerous character of the corrupt ring by 
whom he is controlled, that it has found expression in the adage 
which is in everybody's mouth, "Anything to beat Grant." 
Patriotic men, irrespective of old party associations, animated 
by the desire to save their country from the dangers which 
threaten its liberties and from the overwhelming and demoral- 
izing corruptions which are sapping the very foundations of 
public virtue, have attempted to unite all the elements of opposi- 
tion in one grand effort to change the administration. 

The first great step in this direction was taken at Cincinnati, 
in May last, by a Republican convention assembled from all 



208 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

sections of the country and under the guidance of the oldest, the 
ablest, the best and the most influential leaders of that party. 

That convention presented Horace Greeley of New York as 
the candidate for president, for whose election the people might 
rally in order to save themselves from the appalling calamities 
which the reelection of Ulysses S. Grant too plainly threatens. 

A platform was adopted, pledging anmesty and restoration 
to the South and peace and reconciliation between the discordant 
sections of the country — insisting upon local self-government 
and the reserved rights of the states, upon the limitation of 
federal authority to the exercise of its constitutional powers, 
the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, and 
freedom of person under the protection of the writ of habeas 
corpus, denouncing the manifold abuses in the civil service of 
the government and alleging the same to be a mere instrument of 
partisan tyranny and personal ambition, and an object of selfish 
greed, and denouncing it as a scandal and reproach upon free 
institutions, and as breeding a demoralization dangerous to the 
perpetuity of free institutions, and pledging thorough reforms 
in the civil service, and affirming that honesty, capacity and 
fidelity constitute the only valid claim to public employment. In 
short, the Cincinnati platform embodies, in words most fit and 
proper, the old Jeffersonian theory of administering our govern- 
ment, under the practical application of which in other days 
this country enjoyed freedom so securely and experienced a 
degree of prosperity without a parallel in the history of the 
world. 

Mr. Greeley signified his acceptance of the nomination and 
the platform by a letter of surpassing ability, by a letter that 
will go down to posterity as a part of the history of the times, 
and which, as a political document, has not been outdone by any 
similar emanation from any of the great statesmen of America. 

In this letter he endorses the platform, and expounds and 
approves its principles in language so clear, earnest and able, 
that no one who reads it can doubt that his whole heart is in it, 
and that he will stand by it to the last. 

On the 9th day of July the Democracy of the United States 
assembled at Baltimore, and in a convention in which every state 



ADDRESSES. 209 

and every territory was represented, nominated Horace Greeley 
for their candidate for the presidency, and adopted the Cincin- 
nati platform as their platform, with a unanimity and an 
enthusiasm seldom if ever before equalled in the history of 
Democratic conventions, and this nomination Mr. Greeley has 
also accepted. 

The office holders, the cormorants that feed upon the public 
treasury, and the rings who seeks to run the government so as 
to secure their own selfish ends at the expense of the country, had 
previously holden their convention at Philadelphia and had 
nominated General Grant for reelection ; so that when the Balti- 
more convention had spoken, the issues now about to be tried 
by the whole country were made up and presented. 

Either General Grant or Horace Greeley vdll be the next presi- 
dent of the United States. As to which it shall be, depends upon 
the firmness and virtue of the people. In reference to this mat- 
ter a weighty responsibility rests upon each individual citizen. 
On the one side is arrayed the power and patronage of the 
government with its drilled cohorts of office-holders, ever ready 
to bribe the mercenary by plundering the public treasury, and 
to overawe the weak by federal bayonets, and a tyrannical abuse 
of arbitrary power, aided by the numerous associations and rings 
of men who have combined under the protection of this admin- 
istration for the purpose of unduly enriching themselves by 
robbing the producing and toiling masses of their fellow 
countrymen. 

On the other hand, all the good, the honest, the patriotic, with- 
out reference to former party associations, all of those who seek 
the perpetuity of republican institutions and an honest admin- 
istration of the government, have united in the support of 
Horace Greeley. 

No man who has the responsibility of an American citizen 
resting upon him, who has any sense of accountability for what 
he does, or forbears to do, can afford to remain passive in the 
great struggle which is at hand, and particularly no Democrat 
who has stood firm in the dark years that have lately passed 
over us, when the path of duty has not always been plain, can 
fail, now, to heed the call which his country makes. We are all 

14 



210 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

called upon to choose between an administration that is rapidly 
undermining the foundations of freedom and local self-govern- 
ment, and marching upon the double quick toward centralization 
and a consolidated empire with slavery for us all, and an 
administration that will restore to the whole country its free 
institutions with liberty and plenty for us all. 

The Democracy of the whole Union have solemnly committed 
themselves to the support of Horace Grreeley, but the obligation 
of fealty to his party thus placed upon every Democrat is but 
a small part of the incentive which animates the bosoms of all 
Democrats who comprehend the situation, and the magnitude 
of the issues involved. 

I have an abiding faith in the Democracy. It is a party of 
principle and a patriotic party. Wherever, in the past, the 
success of their principles and the good of the country has 
required them to discard prejudice, to ignore their likes and 
dislikes of men who were honest and capable, they have done it. 
I believe they will do it now. 

I know that we have fought Horace Greeley in the past upon 
the issues which then existed, and in reference to which he dif- 
fered from us. Today those issues no longer exist. The most 
notable of those issues was the slavery question, and it termi- 
nated when the negro was emancipated and elevated to full 
political equality with the white race, and this position was 
secured to him by guarantees in the fundamental law. 

The negro, today, in all our broad land is free, absolutely 
* * lord of himself. " I do not say that such dominion over himself 
in the end will prove to be to him literally ' ' a heritage of woe, ' ' 
but I say that the political equality of the negro with the white 
man is made secure by the Constitution. No matter whether 
we regard the measure wise or unwise, it is established, and we 
must acquiesce therein. Henceforth the negro is a citizen, 
endowed with all the rights of citizenship, including the right 
of suffrage, and he cannot again be reduced to slavery until 
corruption and negligence shall cause us to relax that eternal 
vigilance which is the price of liberty, and fasten upon both 
races a common slavery. Hereafter the political condition of the 
two races must remain the same, and the miserable demagogue 



ADDRESSES. 211 

who would engender antagonism between them is the enemy of 
both, more particularly of the weaker whom he pretends to 
serve. Negro slavery, and the questions growing out of it, have 
been definitely disposed of, and are no longer an element in 
American politics. 

On the living questions of the day, Horace Greeley represents 
the ideas of the Democracy. He represents emphatically the 
idea of reconciliation with the South, and the South believes in 
him; and if he be elected president, peace will have come at 
last to that war-scourged, carpet-bag-ridden and wofully impov- 
erished section of our common country, and fertile fields and 
noble rivers now in solitude will be alive with profitable pro- 
ductions and business, and the hard-taxed resources of the 
nation be strengthened to bear the heavy load of debt wherewith 
they are burdened. 

Horace Greeley represents the idea of a Republican form of 
government with free institutions, and an administration re- 
strained by the limitations of the Constitution; while the name 
of Grant is darkened by the shadows of an approaching empire, 
by encroachments already illegally made upon the civil authority, 
and by surrounding himself at the capitol with the air and 
paraphernalia of a military camp. Horace Greeley will do, and 
stands pledged to do, if elected, just what the Democracy would 
require one of their life-long leaders to do were he elected to 
the presidency. Horace Greeley agrees with us in principle. 
He is honest. Everybody, even his worst enemies, concedes that. 
He is capable; we have seen and felt the ponderous battle axe 
that he swung in the political fights of other days. Horace 
Greeley, then, embodies what we want in a candidate — tried 
by the usual tests we apply to our candidates, he answers them 
all. He represents our ideas. He is honest and he is capable. 

In conclusion, I desire to appeal to each individual Democrat 
in New Hampshire, and adjure him not to be found wanting in 
this election when the hour of trial shall come. The Democracy 
of this state have stood shoulder to shoulder, undaunted through 
long years of defeat, sustained by principle and by love of 
country, with an unflinching steadiness and a resolute deter- 
mination seldom if ever equalled by the masses of any other 



212 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

state or country. And now while a returning sense of the value 
of free institutions seems to be awakening in the hearts of our 
countrymen, and the hosts that are gathering for the fight are 
promising a glorious victory to our most righteous cause, let not 
one of the Old Guard cower or shrink from the full discharge of 
his full duty. But let every Democrat who has a record in the 
past rise up and gird himself for double work, and enter the 
contest with the fixed determination that no omission on his part 
shall disappoint the brilliant hopes that have been kindled, and 
prevent the redemption of the state, and the deliverance of 
the Nation. 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS. 
Delivered at Littleton, N. H., July 4, 1876. 

Fellow Citizens: 

One hundred years have passed since the United States of 
America proclaimed themselves free and independent states. 
Whatever of confidence, whatever of knowledge, whatever of 
wisdom, a century of existence as a separate people can give, is 
now ours. We have had experience. Our government is no 
longer an untried experiment. What good men only hoped for 
and believed in theory, one hundred years ago, is today a 
demonstrated fact. We are entitled to feel — we ought to feel 
— confidence in the stability of our existing political fabric 
accordingly as we are warranted in so doing by the lessons of 
the past, and, I may add, accordingly as the pillars in the struc- 
ture stand firm or otherwise today. To guide our judgment in 
these respects we ought to have all the knowledge which a careful 
study of the history of our country can give. If our republic 
is to stand, we must get wisdom and be guided by it. An intel- 
ligent and an abiding love of country must be revived in the 
hearts of the people. 

All the states of the Union, by a common consent, have selected 
the present year for an exhibition of themselves on the spot 
where Independence was born, and the inhabitants of the whole 
world have been invited to come there and see us and exhibit 



ADDRESSES. 218 

themselves also; and so we have at this time a most favorable 
opportunity for self-examination and for comparing ourselves 
with the rest of mankind. I think our people everywhere are 
today disposed to pause a little, and to inquire where they are 
and whither they are drifting. Such an inquiry necessarily leads 
to retrospection as to the past, to examination as to the present, 
and speculation as to the future. 

This is well enough as far as it goes ; but, if it stops here, what 
does it signify? We cannot be instructed by merely taking a 
bird's-eye view of the past; by making a running examination 
of the present and a wild guess at the future. The past for all 
practical uses is a sealed book, except to those who study it with 
care, discrimination, and impartiality. The past enables us to 
act wisely in the present, to predict correctly as to the future, 
only when we have learned her lessons fully and fairly. Her 
wisdom is not for the idler nor the bigot, in either politics or 
religion. 

The true lesson, the real wisdom of the past, can be learned 
by him only who is both diligent and impartial. Whenever and 
wherever prejudice, passion, superstition, or fanaticism beclouds 
the minds of men, they cannot see and understand — they would 
not, if they could, see and understand the lessons of the past. 
History, as she portrays the growth and decay of empires, by 
telling the story of one, repeats the story of the other, so far as 
the general causes of growth and decay are concerned. Preju- 
dice, passion, superstition, and fanaticism are always blind. 
Under their influence a people rush wildly along the road, 
whithersoever their madness impels them. To them, the lessons 
of the past, the teachings of history, and even the prophetic 
warnings of sober men in their midst, are nothing. The fury 
that has seized them must spend itself, must wear itself out, 
before reason can return; and then, if the ruin is not total, if 
the damage is not irreparable, slow, toiling industry will grad- 
ually bring back again what has been lost. Man as an individual 
is like men in the aggregate. I may give an exposition of history 
to a man or to a body of men in accordance with their precon- 
ceived opinions, and I shall be sure to be applauded ; but, if my 
exposition happens to be in conflict with the prejudices of my 



214 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

hearers, I am just as sure of disapproval. In neither case are 
the real merits of my exposition tried, or any genuine instruction 
given. 

So far, then, as the events of the past are directly connected 
with the ideas which are now the subject-matter of controversy 
between political parties, or where the memory of those events 
is colored according to the partisan bias of each, I despair of 
being able — I think it would be folly to try — to obtain from 
such a source, a lesson that would instruct or would be appro- 
priate even on the present occasion. As regards facts accom- 
plished, and as regards principles that have been settled and 
incorporated into the fundamental law, the direct and legitimate 
inferences to be derived therefrom are proper to be considered. 
There is no occasion to go farther. The world is old enough, so 
that the past opens up a field broad enough for present comment, 
inquiry, and instruction. 

When once attention is turned backward, a vast panorama 
spreads out before us, and our observation must be general. If 
anything like a detailed investigation be attempted, the work 
becomes infinite. We recognize first our connection with the 
countless generations of humanity that have preceded us, and 
the links which bind us to them, and them and us to the future. 
*'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that 
which is done is that which shall be done : and there is no new 
thing under the sun. ' ' 

Those that have preceded us walked the earth as we do, the 
same air around them, the same sky above them; lived as we 
live, felt as we feel, and died as we must. 

The same sun that broke the night of Chaos, and showed, 
for the first time, his glories to a new-born world, has ever 
since continued his ceaseless rounds, and now rolls over our 
heads as bright and majestic as when he lighted up the morning 
of creation. Mother Earth gives all the successive generations 
of humanity the same support, and in their order gives them all 
a final resting-place in her bosom. Nature is ever changing, yet 
is she always the same ; her rounds are ceaseless, but unvarying ; 
like succeeds like ; man succeeds man, as wave succeeds wave on 
the surface of the sea. These are some of the considerations that 



ADDRESSES. 215 

naturally strike our minds at first when we cast our eyes back- 
ward upon the past. 

Next, in this business of retrospection, our attention is un- 
avoidably directed to the nations and peoples that have arisen, 
flourished, decayed, and passed out of existence, in regular suc- 
cession from the beginning of the world to the present time. On 
the grand panorama of the past, nation succeeds nation as 
generations of men succeed each other. The general features 
of the history of these nations and peoples are the same, and in 
each instance their rise, progress, decay, and final extinction 
were attended by similar circumstances. They all sprang from 
small beginnings, grew and prospered while public virtue was 
maintained, fell into decay as public virtue disappeared, and 
into final extinction when vice and corruption had obtained full 
mastery. Such is the brief, yet accurate outline of the annals of 
the nations and peoples that once were, but have now passed 
away. In the beginning they were poor, their habits simple. 
Industry, economy, honesty, and love of country were the rule, 
and under the practice of these virtues prosperity, wealth, and 
power were attained, followed by luxury, enervation, corruption, 
decay, and final dissolution. Obedience to the law, strict ob- 
servance of the great principles of morality, respect for religion, 
always characterize a people while laying a foundation and 
rearing the superstructure of national greatness. The law, the 
rules of morality and religion, loosen their hold and exercise less 
and less restraint as corruption creeps in and taints more and 
more the body politic. Contempt for the law, general immorality, 
impiety, and infidelity mark the period when decay becomes 
universal, and indicate, unmistakably indicate, that the end is 
almost reached. The different systems of government, the differ- 
ent forms of religion, as illustrated by the past, so far as they 
are wholesome, so far as they have efficacy, rest upon the same 
great original truths. 

A people who are virtuous, and who have laws founded upon 
reason, and just rulers are sure to be prosperous and happy. 
Any form of government, with any form of religion, that secures 
these three conditions, viz., a virtuous people, reasonable laws, 
and just rulers, answers the end for which government is de- 



216 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

signed. Any form of religion that restrains the masses of men 
from vice, and holds them in the paths of virtue, answers the 
end of religion so far as the body politic and the temporal well- 
being of a people are concerned. History shows that nations 
have arisen, practiced all the civic virtues, grown, and flourished 
under monarchies that were absolute, under monarchies where 
the will of the sovereign was limited, under aristocracies, and 
under republics. So, too, have nations arisen and flourished, 
carrying the arts and sciences and civilization to a high degree 
of perfection, under each of the forms of religion, — Pagan, 
Mohammedan, and Christian. 

It follows, then, that a government is good only when it is 
well administered ; that the substance of religion — not its mere 
form — is the conservative element in a state. True piety, 
genuine reverence for the Deity, devoted patriotism, make a 
good citizen in any age or in any country, no matter what the 
form of government or religion may be. 

The form of our own government differs from that of any 
existing people of the world, and is not identical with that of 
any other people which has existed in the past. The institutions 
and laws under which we live had their origin far back of our 
Declaration of Independence. They are the growth of ages. 
They were born in the forests of Germany, transported from 
thence by the Angles and Saxons to the Island of Great Britain, 
and there defended by strong arms, expanded and enlarged 
by the demands of a growing commerce and civilization, per- 
fected by the wisdom of jurists and statesmen, until the magnifi- 
cent system, known as the common law, was developed, — until 
limitations of arbitrary power were so firmly established that 
constitutional liberty was made secure. Our fathers brought 
from England to America the common law and the idea of 
liberty made secure by law. They formed communities wherein 
their rights were regulated by the common law, and wherein 
they made the idea of liberty secured by law a living reality, 
and maintained this state of things during the entire period 
of their colonial existence. Our Revolutionary fathers were 
educated in the school of freedom. They knew their rights, and 
dared to maintain them. They scented tyranny in the distance. 



ADDRESSES. 217 

When the British government encroached upon their liberties, 
they met the first movement, at the threshold, with stern resist- 
ance ; and when that movement was persisted in, notwithstanding 
their resistance, they assumed the responsibility of cutting 
asunder the political bonds that bound them to Great Britain, 
and of taking the position of a separate people among the 
nations of the earth. They then published to the world the 
declaration that has been read here today, announcing that the 
United States of America were free and independent states. 
The stubborn valor of the people, guided by wise leadership, 
made good this declaration; and the separate and independent 
position of the United States thus assumed, in a doubtful hour 
and in the face of a future black with impending dangers, was 
permanently established. Next came the trial, the labor, and 
the responsiblity of organizing a government that should develop 
the resources, answer the expectations, and protect the liberties 
of a free people. 

There is no one particular thing as it occurs to me that we 
can do on this day more appropriate, or more likely to be 
profitable, than to turn our eyes backward upon the situation 
of this country at the close of the Revolutionary War. I mean 
upon the situation at that time as regards the men, the material, 
and the means then on hand, out of which it was possible to 
organize future greatness and power, and future security for 
liberty. I maintain that for such purposes this situation was the 
most favorable which has ever occurred in the history of the 
world. 

In the first place, consider the vast territory, developed and 
undeveloped, that was theirs, and a people numbering upwards 
of three millions, hardy, inured to toil, vigorous, profoundly 
religious, nurtured in freedom and obedience to the law, well 
instructed as to the means by which liberty is made secure, 
jealous of their rights, and prepared to die if necessary for their 
maintenance. 

Next, let us inquire, who were the statesmen? Who were the 
great popular leaders of that day? They were Washington, 
Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and their illus- 
trious compeers. I maintain that in their foresight, profound 



218 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

sagacity, and self-denying patriotism, the American statesmen of 
the Revolutionary period far outmatched their antagonists in 
the councils of Great Britain, and that to this fact, among other 
reasons, are to be ascribed the fortunate results of that contest. 
With such a people, under the guidance of so much patriotic 
wisdom, with so great a territory wherein to develop themselves, 
the experiment of self-government was made under circumstances 
in wliich the presumptions of success were overwhelming. Fail- 
ure would seem to have been impossible, and so the fact has 
turned out to be. A system of government was devised and put 
into operation, adapted to the then existing institutions, to the 
wants of a free people, and to making liberty permanently 
secure. The United States, like the goddess Minerva, sprang 
into existence and took its stand among the nations of the earth 
in full panoply. The Revolutionary fathers studied the science 
of government and understood it. They knew the value of 
liberty and how to make it secure under the protection of the 
law. 

The evidence of all this is found in the works they did and 
in the monuments they have left behind them. Under the direc- 
tion of the statesmen of the Revolution, our career as a separate 
people was most successfully begun. A development of material 
prosperity — of everything that makes a people great and power- 
ful — followed with a rapidity of growth entirely without prece- 
dent or parallel. And this astonishing growth continued until 
the Revolutionary fathers were dead, until the men who were 
associated with the statesmen of the Revolution were dead, and 
until the lessons, the teachings, and the warnings of Washington, 
of Jefferson, and of Jackson were dead in the hearts of the 
people. 

I pass over the consideration of the causes that led to the 
late rebellion and the tremendous civil war that followed. Those 
events are too recent and too exciting for dispassionate comment 
at this time. An impartial criticism upon them that shall do 
exact justice to all parties concerned, must be the work of some- 
body in the far-off future. I will not stop even to compare the 
impoverished, tax-ridden condition of the various sections of our 
common country with what they might have been had there 



ADDRESSES. 219 

been no rebellion and civil war. The country has passed through 
the fearful ordeal ; she has crossed the bloody chasm of rebellion 
and civil war; she is now fairly on the other side, worn, weary, 
exhausted, but, thank God, at peace. Civil liberty yet retains 
a foothold, and it lies with ourselves to say whether or not it 
shall be everywhere restored. We have been taught a most bitter 
lesson. We are not wise if we do not profit by it. Amid the 
tramp of soldiers and the clash of arms, we have seen the laws 
silent, the mouth of Justice dumb. We have seen how easily the 
liberties of a whole people might be forever lost amidst the 
throes and convulsions of civil war. All history shows that a 
free people who value their liberties so lightly that they once 
let them slip from their grasp and be lost, never recover those 
lost liberties; they are gone forever. We have abundant reason 
to be devoutly thankful to Almighty Grod that it is no worse 
with us than it is. If the people of this country. North and 
South, East and West, appreciate their experience for the last 
twenty years, the sufferings they have had, the dangers they 
escaped, it will be a hard matter to kindle the flames of another 
civil war for the next hundred years. 

The controversy that has so long existed in relation to the 
status of the negro has been settled, — settled by constitutional 
provisions that abolish all distinctions of race or color so far as 
civil and political rights are concerned. 

Scarcely, however, is the negro question disposed of, before 
we are complicated again by the appearance on our Western 
coast of some of the representatives of the countless myriads of 
Asiatic populations. Our Constitution grants the same civil and 
political rights to men of every race, and freedom of religious 
opinion to everybody, — to Pagan, Jew, Mohammedan, and 
Christian alike. Our land is broad enough, our fundamental 
law is liberal enough, to give a home and protection to men of 
every race, and to devotees of every form of religion. 

Who shall say that the time is far distant when the three 
great original typical races of mankind, viz., the Caucasian, the 
Mongolian, and the Negro, shall meet on this continent in the 
enjoyment of equal civil and political rights, and each, according 
to his own peculiar talent, contribute to the volume of national 



220 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

prosperity, until it shall reach a degree of greatness transcending 
everything that has as yet been dreamed of ? I speak not of this 
as something desirable or otherwise. I speak of it as a possible 
result towards which we are, or may be, now drifting. 

To my mind there are dangers worse than the dangers that 
have been escaped on account of the negro; worse than any 
dangers to be apprehended on account of the Mongolians. I 
refer to the wide-spread corruption that has manifested itself 
in official life and among the people at their primary elections. 
Corruption is a corroding sore on the body politic. It disinte- 
grates and consumes, and, unless speedily eradicated, it will 
destroy the whole fabric. The history of the past shows it to be 
the forerunner of the final dissolution of nations. Biblical 
history records the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
the corrupt cities of the Plain, on account of their abominations, 
by a consuming rain of fire and brimstone ; and in our own land, 
although we may not get the literal fire and brimstone, yet 
retribution just as certain, destruction just as absolute, will be 
sure to overtake us except there is a speedy reformation. 

Partisan triumphs that are secured by corrupt agencies, shame 
the victor who has got a capacity susceptible of feeling shame. 
Such triumphs belong to worthless adventurers, to heartless 
demagogues, to vile sycophants, to those in whom greed for office 
and the still more contemptible greed for filthy lucre, has dead- 
ened every patriotic emotion. It is difficult to find words severe 
enough to express the indignation which honest men ought to 
feel towards the man who lives and thrives upon the destruction 
of the public virtue. In the words of the dramatic poet upon this 
subject, — 

"Is there not some chosen curse — 
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven 
Red with uncommon wrath to blast the man 
Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin?" 

I am admonished that there are many things upon this occa- 
sion which must be done, and that I may have already consumed 
more than my share of the time. I will, therefore, hasten to 
conclude with an appeal to the young. I would say to the young 
men, and to the young women, too, that your characters, such 



ADDRESSES. 221 

as they are to be hereafter, are now in process of formation. 
Your present habits of thought and action, whatever they may 
be, are forming the character by which you will be known while 
you live and by which you will be remembered when dead 
Learn to respect yourselves; and, in order to do that your con- 
duct must be what the light that is withm you— what the con- 
science approves. 

"To thine own self be true; 
And it must follow, as the night the day. 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 

The idle popularity that vanity courts, and that comes of 
fawning and flattery, you do not want. It is as worthless as 
the baubles with which children are pleased. But there is a 
value in the good name that follows worthy actions; that comes 
of duties well performed, of grave responsibilities fairly met 
If you would learn what your duties and obligations are to your 
country, go back to the heroic age of America. Study the lessons 
of patriotism and political wisdom left us by the fathers of the 
republic. If you would remedy the political degeneracy of these 
times and restore public virtue, then recall honesty, patriotism 
and statesmanship to the front, and re-instate them in the offices 
of the government. Let integrity and ability combined be the 
only passport to official station; and then, and not till then 
may we expect that the old-time prosperity will be restored that 
our country will resume her astonishing march onward and 
upward towards the fulfillment of her destiny,— a destiny more 
brilliant than the most sanguine of the fathers ever dreamed — 
a destiny, the meridian of whose glory lies far away in the dim 
future. 



222 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 



ORATION. 

Delivered Before Marshal Sanders Post, G. A. R., of Little- 
ton, N. H., May 31, 1880. 
My Friends : 

I address you as an organization whose members once served 
in the armies of the country, at a critical period in its history. 
You have been thus organized on account of that service. The 
exercises and ceremonials of this day have been instituted to 
perpetuate the memory of the eventful times in which that 
service was rendered ; to recall the images and the deeds of your 
comrades who sank to their last rest on ' ' the bed of honor " ; to 
rekindle within yourselves the old patriotic fire; to contemplate 
the great and prosperous country, the wise and beneficent gov- 
ernment which your labors have contributed to save; and to 
inquire what can we do to make our future national greatness, 
freedom and happiness more certain, — what can we do towards 
holding our people in the right paths, so that the present prom- 
ises of a glorious national destiny may be realized. In entering 
upon this work, I find myself embarrassed by the broad field 
before me, and by the multitude of thoughts that crowd upon 
the mind and demand expression. Out of the many things that 
press for consideration, I am in doubt as to what selections ought 
to be made. 

My words must necessarily be few; nor will many words be 
needed to bring to your minds events indelibly stamped on your 
memories. A simple recurrence of those memories brings to you 
lifelike sounds, images and scenes. The first call to arms seems 
to ring in your ears. The camp, the weary march, the battle- 
field and all its horrors, the heroes, now dead, who then stood 
by your sides, pass before the mind's eye, vivid and fresh as 
the reality itself. At the same time the old emotions come back 
again ; your pulses are quickened and your hearts thrilled ; you 
are ready once more to do and to dare any and all things that 
duty requires. 



ADDRESSES. 223 

The contrast between the quiet of the present hour and the 
restless times in which the events that we commemorate occurred 
is very great. Amid the peace and security in which we now 
repose we need the harsh pictures, that are burned on our mem- 
ories, to enable us to realize the excitement, the anxiety and the 
terror, which then filled all hearts. 

A civil war of enormous proportions, waged for the avowed 
purpose of disrupting the Union and destroying the government 
of our fathers, was plucking up confidence by the roots and scat- 
tering dismay and disorder everywhere. 

The ordinary safeguards of the law for the protection of life, 
liberty and property was disregarded. The bonds of society 
were loosened. Credit was gone and uncertainty and distrust 
were universal. Every man looked only to himself for help as 
he despairingly beheld law, order and the public safety, tumbling 
into one common ruin. It was in that fearful hour, amid the 
crash of falling institutions and the bursting of the pent up 
fury of a revolutionary storm, which had been gathering for 
years, that the agonizing cry for help went abroad over the land. 
Nor was that cry unheard and without response. You heard it 
and responded. Brave men and strong men responded. From 
all quarters the fiery energy and fervor of youth and the mature 
strength of manhood were put forth to save the governmental 
fabric at the very moment when it was shaking and toppling 
from its foundation, and when the old order of things, all the 
accumulations of the civilization of the past were apparently 
about to be lost. In the fearful struggle that followed, gigantic 
armies, fully armed, equipped and trained for the work of death, 
for the first time on American soil, met in deadly conflict. The 
sufferings and hardships you then endured and the perils you 
then encountered you will never forget, while life and memory 
remain. Lost limbs and scarred bodies furnish for many of you 
indisputable evidence that you have met face to face the terrible 
realities of war. 

It will not be worth while to trace the varying and fluctuating 
fortunes of the long contest. Its incidents are familiar to all. 
Time and space would altogether fail us should we attempt to 
make even passing mention of the many heroes who distinguished 



224 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

themselves on the numerous battlefields of the rebellion. It is 
enough to say that the reputation of the men of New Hampshire, 
acquired in previous wars, for steady, determined, unflinching 
bravery, remains undimmed; that the sons of New Hampshire 
repeated on the bloody fields of Grettysburg, Antietam and 
Chancellorsville, what their fathers had done at Bunker Hill, 
at Bennington, at Monmouth, at Yorktown and at Lundy 's Lane 
— the foremost in the assault, the last to retire. Were I to 
particularize, I could do so only for a few, and where all did 
so well, that would be unjust. 

The cruel war dragged its weary length along through sorrow- 
ful years to its close ; but it was a triumphant close. The final 
result was glorious. The armies of the rebellion were everywhere 
subdued. Submission was perfect and universal. The cause of 
the government was fully vindicated. The Union was saved and 
the victorious soldier permitted to return to his home, there to 
wear in peace the laurels which his valor had won. 

I will not comment, except in a general way, on the work of 
reconstruction which the rebellion and its results had rendered 
inevitable. Wise statesmanship, cooperating with the ameliorat- 
ing influences of time and mutual forgiveness of both real and 
imaginary wrongs, was needed for the accomplishment of that 
work. 

In view of the situation of affairs at the close of the rebellion, 
I regard it as a matter of sincere congratulation among all 
patriots, and among all the friends and well wishers of this 
country, that things are not worse. 

On the part of the victorious North, exasperated by the stub- 
born resistance of its fallen foe, and smarting with its great 
losses, there was in the very flush of triumph, a larger modera- 
tion, a greater forbearance and more genuine commiseration over 
the distress of its humbled antagonist than is ordinarily accorded 
by the victor to the vanquished. 

On the part of the conquered, humiliated, disheartened, but 
still alienated South, there was a more thorough submission and 
a stronger disposition to accept the situation and to return to 
their old position and duties in the Union manifested, than we 
should naturally expect to be shown by subjugated rebels. To 



ADDRESSES. 225 

this there have been exceptions in the North and in the South. 
But, on the whole, it is plain that in both sections, since the war 
closed, the general tendency of the public mind has been towards 
favoring the old Union, under the Constitution, modified only 
by the changed circumstances of the country and the amendments 
formally and legally made. 

I will not now further remark upon the work of reconstruc- 
tion and will only utter a word of gratitude to the Almighty 
Ruler of the universe, in which I am sure all can join, that it 
is as well with us as it is, — that the angel of Peace, with healing 
on her wings, has come to abide with us permanently; that 
Plenty and Prosperity sit smiling everywhere all over our broad 
land; that assurance is confidently felt that the Union of our 
fathers, in substance as well as in form, has been saved and will 
endure ; that the federal government is once more to be adminis- 
tered by the exercise of powers within the limitations of the 
Constitution; that liberty protected by law is to be in reality 
secured for all the inhabitants of the land, not only for the 
black man but for the white man also, without distinction of 
race or color; that the Ship of State has weathered the storm, 
has safely passed through the boiling whirlpool of revolution, 
has righted herself, and with her timbers battered and bruised, 
but still sound and strong, with sails repaired and spread to the 
breeze, is once more with favoring gales on the broad open sea. 

It is to commemorate your services on the battlefield in behalf 
of the Union, to keep alive the memory of the noble but "unre- 
turning brave," who gave their lives in behalf of the same cause, 
that the services and ceremonials of this day have been instituted. 

In this connection it may be pertinently inquired — "Why is it 
worth while to preserve the memory of a successful contest, waged 
for the salvation of the Federal Union and the preservation of 
the institutions of our fathers? What is the value of the Fed- 
eral Union? What detriment would its loss entail upon us 
which could justify such sacrifices for its maintenance ? 

The answer to these questions necessarily involves the con- 
sideration of the history of the country, the origin, special pur- 
poses and the peculiar construction of the government, and the 
practical operation of that government as shown by actual trial, 

15 



226 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

in securing the prosperity, happiness and freedom of the people. 
Volumes might be filled in the consideration of these matters 
and the subject still remain unexhausted. I shall only glance 
at them in the hope that it may awaken in your minds a spirit 
of inquiry, and lead to a deeper, more thorough and enlightened 
comprehension of the priceless value of our free government, 
and of the reasons why no possible sacrifices can be regarded 
as too great for a people to make for the maintenance of such a 
government. 

This country had its beginning in the planting of thirteen 
distinct colonies upon the Atlantic shore of the North American 
continent. These colonies grew up distinct and separate and in 
process of time, having dissolved their allegiance to the parent 
country, and having assumed the attitude of free and indepen- 
dent states, they formed, for mutual protection in certain 
specified particulars, a Union, while in all other respects they 
all retained their original independence. 

Ultimately this Union took the form and substance in 
accordance with and under the terms of the Federal Constitu- 
tion. By that Constitution, certain powers therein enumerated, 
affecting the general welfare and essential to the common 
defense, were delegated to the Federal government, and all 
powers not thus delegated were reserved to the states, respec- 
tively, or to the people. By the Federal Constitution the ex- 
clusive control of all local and domestic affairs is left to the 
states. 

From the adoption of this Constitution in 1789 to the breaking 
out of the recent rebellion in 1861, a period of more than seventy 
years, the country enjoyed a degree of prosperity unexampled 
in the history of the world as it respects the astonishing increase 
of its population, the rapid accumulation of its wealth, the vast 
peaceful accessions to its territory and, in short, as it respects 
all matters of material aggrandizement and the building-up and 
development of everything that makes a people great, grand and 
glorious. 

At the same time we were free, perfectly free, to go or to 
come whensoever and wheresoever we listed, provided only that 
we trespassed not on our neighbor. The rebellion imperiled, 



ADDRESSES. 227 

yea, threatened with absolute annihilation, the government under 
which all these blessings had come to us and seemed about to 
precipitate into one common ruin all that we had inherited, — 
all that we had respected, revered, and loved in the work of our 
fathers, and, in the work of our own hands, all that we had done 
for ourselves and those that might come after us. 

I will not stop to speak of the angry controversies, the noisy, 
unreasoning, and reckless partisanship, that preceded the actual 
clash of arms and shock of battle. I will not stop to say how 
much or how little was done on the one side or the other to pro- 
voke a free, prosperous and enlightened people to a degree of 
madness sufficient to induce them to plunge themselves into all 
the horrors of a civil war, involving risks so hazardous and 
consequences, in the most favorable event, so terrible. 

But I will say that, in the North and in the South, the warning 
voices of Washington, of Jefferson, of Jackson and of all the 
great founders and guardians of the Union, to beware of 
geographical parties and of the arrayal of one section of the 
country against the other, were no longer heard or regarded. 
In addition to this, it is enough for me to say, that when the 
laws protecting liberty were everywhere ignored; that when the 
governmental fabric and all institutions dependent thereon were 
dissolving like snows before an April sun, and the agonizing 
cry for help went abroad over the land, you left the industries 
of your respective callings, and came from your oflSces, your 
counting-rooms, your work-shops and farms, and took your 
places under the starry folds of the old flag, determined to meet 
and roll back the tide of revolution or to die with hearts resolved 
and with your faces to the foe. 

In that dread hour the arm of authority was paralyzed. The 
hoarse mutterings of the mob, like distant thunder, were the 
only sounds that could be heard. The lurid glare of the kindling 
torches of rebellion was the only light that shone on the darkened 
land. The whole heavens were black with clouds of impenetrable 
darkness. Strong men wept. 

"A child will weep at a bramble's smart, 
A maid to see her Sparrow part, 
A stripling for a woman's heart. 
But woe awaits a country when 
She sees the tears of bearded men." 



228 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

It is the immense value of what was saved from extreme peril 
by the firmness and valor of yourselves and your associates, that 
has made for you and for them a record which shall grow brighter 
and brighter with increasing years, so long as heroic deeds, 
performed in the maintenance of liberty and free institutions, 
shall command the admiration and respect of mankind. It is 
to commemorate this great service that a day has been set apart 
to stand alongside of the anniversary of our National Indepen- 
dence, a monument to perpetuate the memory of the great his- 
torical events in which you acted a part. The men of the future 
will be reminded by the recurrence of these anniversaries, of 
what it costs to establish, and what it costs to maintain, free 
institutions. Hereafter, as the stream of time rolls on and events 
now recent fade away into the shadowy past, both anniversaries 
will remain, and, with each recurrence, will bring before the 
eyes of the American people the heroic age in their history. 

In this connection the inquiry naturally arises whether or not 
the fundamental law has been changed in consequence of the 
war against rebellion, and, if changed thereby, what changes 
has it suffered ? It will be found on investigation that the only 
change of the Constitution which has been made, is the addition 
thereto of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. By those 
amendments slavery is prohibited and full civil and political 
rights conferred upon men of the African race. In all other 
respects the Constitution stands as it was ordained by our 
fathers. The federal government and the governments of the 
states now hold, under the fundamental law, the same relations 
to each other that they have held ever since the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution. Each, in its appropriate sphere, is inde- 
pendent of the other. In the exercise of the powers granted it 
the federal government is supreme. In the exercise of the 
powers reserved to them, the states are sovereign. The same 
instrument which grants to the general government its powers, 
reserves to the states their powers. The Constitution of the 
United States secures to the federal government its granted 
powers, — to the states, respectively, their reserved powers. By 
that instrument ''an indissoluble Union of states that are 
indestructible" is established. By that instrument the sov- 



ADDRESSES. 229 

ereign powers incident to an independent nation are divided 
between the Union and the states, each taking a distinct part 
thereof, to be separately and independently exercised; so that 
when we use the term "national government," in its true sense, 
as applied to the government of the United States, we mean 
the government ordained and established by the Constitution 
of the United States ; we mean a government, a portion of whose 
powers are absolutely vested in the Federal Union and the 
remainder just as absolutely vested in the states. 

The executive, the legislative and the judicial departments of 
the Federal Union, and of each and every state, are bound and 
sworn to support and uphold the Constitution of the United 
States as the supreme law of the land; and they are bound and 
sworn to support and uphold it, just the same, in respect to the 
powers granted by it to the federal government and in respect 
to the powers reserved by it to the states respectively, or to the 
people. Every good citizen of the Republic, whatever his party 
associations or affiliations may be, will yield implicit obedience 
to its fundamental law and will maintain and uphold the federal 
and state governments respectively, each in its appropriate 
sphere as part of one and the same system. Any encroachments 
made by either the federal or state government upon the legiti- 
mate powers of the other are alike treasonable and revolutionary. 
The same tie that binds us to the maintenance of the Union, 
binds us to the maintenance of the reserved rights of the states. 
The Union could not exist without the states and the destruction 
of either would be revolution and the overthrow of the 
government. 

The recent amendments to the Constitution, of which I have 
spoken, making the negro the equal of the white man in civil 
and political rights, are now a part of the fundamental law, 
binding upon the nation, upon the federal and the several 
state governments, and upon the people. The white man and 
the negro now stand alike before the law, as it respects the right 
of suffrage and the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness. 

These amendments were adopted as a settlement of the con- 
troversy about slavery, which had been the occasion of constant 



230 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

and long continued irritation between the North and the South, 
and finally had culminated in one of the most bloody, expensive 
and desolating civil wars known to history. This settlement 
was made that the peace which had come to us at the close of the 
war might stay and be permanent ; that the institutions planted 
by Washington and his illustrious associates might not die, but 
live ; that liberty protected by law might be enjoyed throughout 
the land by all the inhabitants thereof; that the love of the 
Union and respect for the rights of the states might be restored 
to the hearts of the people everywhere. It was not merely on 
his own account that the negro was enfranchised, but he was 
enfranchised that thereby a great bone of contention might be 
removed and the liberty of the white man also be made secure. 
In this view these amendments may well be regarded as possess- 
ing a special sanctity; as a pledge for peace; as a pledge for 
liberty, under the Constitution, to both the white man and the 
black man. For these reasons, whatever may be the capacity of 
the negro for self-government and however unwisely he may 
exercise the privilege of an elector, it does not follow but that 
the adoption of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments was dic- 
tated by sound policy. It is certain that the reasons for the 
elevation of the negro to full civil and political equality with 
the white race outweighed all considerations to the contrary and 
the thing was done. He has been placed upon the same level 
with his white brother with respect to civil and political rights. 
He has the right to vote and to be elevated by the votes of the 
people to any office within their gift. He may be a juror, a 
judge, a minister plenipotentiary to a foreign nation, whenever 
he develops abilities and integrity sufficient to warrant the ap- 
pointing power in placing him in such positions. But if he 
fails to receive a majority of the votes of his fellow citizens for 
an elective office, or if he is unfit for a juror, or a judge, or a 
foreign minister, then, like his white brother under like circum- 
stances, he must abide at home and be content with the honors 
of a private station. The negro is free, master of himself; he 
must take care of himself and look no longer for special protec- 
tion, — only for the general protection which the law gives every 
citizen. The law gives him the same rights and privileges that 



ADDRESSES. 231 

it gives the white man, not greater. The shackles have been 
struck from his limbs. All that freedom, education, civilization 
and Christianity can do for him to sharpen his intellect and 
strengthen his moral sense is now being done. If the negro, as 
his own master, shall prove to be industrious; if he shall avail 
himself of the extraordinary advantages by which he is sur- 
rounded and become intelligent, honest, learned and enlightened ; 
shall prove himself capable of self-government, and shall here- 
after, in due time, show himself a wise and incorruptible elector, 
a scholar, a philosopher and a statesman, then, indeed, shall we 
have occasion to bless those amendments as not only giving 
peace and securing civil liberty to a great people, but as emanci- 
pating and elevating a down-trodden, unhappy race from the 
bonds of slavery to the happy condition of free, self-governing, 
prosperous and enlightened citizens of the great republic. 

On the other hand, if the friends of the negro are disap- 
pointed and his attempt at self-government shall prove a failure, 
still, the wisdom of the amendments is not thereby impeached. 
Those amendments settle a most ruinous controversy and were 
oil on the troubled waters. They were a necessity. It made no 
difference whether, as a result of freedom, the negro went up or 
down; free he must be and a voter also. Upon the plane of 
equality he must compete with his white brother for a livelihood 
and for distinction, the same air around them, the same sky 
above them, and the same law protecting them. Should this 
competition be too sharp for the intellect and moral sense of the 
negro, now, for the first time in the history of the African race 
subjected to such a trial, there is no help for it. He must pass 
the ordeal and be content with what his own capabilities and 
efforts can accomplish. He has now full opportunity to be 
himself and to do all that he is capable of doing. What he is 
not, he never can be; what he is not capable of doing, he never 
can do. He, like the rest of mankind, must submit to the inevi- 
table. The welfare of the negro, his wants and wishes, had little 
to do with his emancipation. He was a merely passive element 
of the body politic. The people in their sovereign capacity made 
him free, not on his own account, but that an ever recurring 
source of trouble might be eliminated from the politics of the 



232 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

country, — ^that alleged wrongs might no longer furnish material 
for demagogues and miehief makers with which to do their work. 

Animated by the spirit in which these amendments were 
adopted, all good citizens will uphold and maintain them as 
essential parts of the Constitution. Let the privileges and the 
rights of freemen be freely accorded our fellow citizens of the 
African race, and in the most perfect good faith, whether or not 
they as a race are benefitted much therby ; because the welfare of 
the whole people, the preservation of the peace of the country, 
the security of the Union and of free government are all de- 
pendent thereon. 

I need not call upon you to uphold and maintain the great 
charter of American liberty, the Constitution of your country. 
In darker days than these and when the path of duty was not so 
plain as now, you found out what your duty was and you dared 
to do it. In your maturer age, in the discharge of your duties 
as citizens, you will not fail to seek to preserve and perpetuate 
what your youthful valor plucked from the very jaws of 
destruction. 

There are those from whom we sometimes hear in these days, 
in muttered phrase, and in subdued tones, something about a 
"strong government." A strong government! What do they 
mean? Do they mean a government strong in the love and 
patriotic devotion of the people, and upheld by freemen ? If so. 
Amen. But, do they mean otherwise? Do they mean a strong 
government such as Great Britain has wielded over Ireland; 
such as the Autocrat of Russia has wielded over Poland and 
today wields over all his subjects? Do they mean a government 
in which all the rulers are tyrants and the people slaves? A 
government hated by the people, abhorred by all patriots and 
upheld only by mercenary swords and bayonets? If such be 
the government which these advocates of a "strong government" 
would substitute for the free and beneficent government which 
we now enjoy, the Lord deliver us from out of their hands. 
They are bad men — very bad men. If such a government is 
formed, they must contemplate making themselves the tyrants 
and the miserable people whom they would delude their slaves. 
No insidious wiles or deceptive pretences can ever induce you to 



ADDRESSES. 233 

consent to the imposition of such a government on the American 
people. As soldiers you have served with honor, and as citizens 
you can never forget the obligations of citizenship. 

It is not alone on the battlefield, amid the booming of cannon, 
the rattle of musketry, and the groans of the dying that brave 
work is done. We live and do our duty only by struggling con- 
stantly against opposing forces. He who daily encounters and 
overcomes his appetites and his passions, who dares always to 
obey the voice of reason, and who, in defiance of the mob and 
self-constituted tyrants, keeps ever the even tenor of his ways, 
is a Jiero. 

In the military service when the bugle sounded you took, 
without hesitation and without question, your posts, prepared 
to meet any foe or danger that might be near. Your organiza- 
tion must bring to mind the lessons taught you in camp ; lessons 
that are needed in the peaceful walks of life, as well as in the 
tented field. 

A people capable of self-government and of maintaining free 
institutions must always possess that steady courage, that un- 
flinching fortitude, which meets and endures all things whenever 
and wherever duty calls. The strong men, the truly great men, 
in a free country, are those who do their duty fearlessly, con- 
scientiously, under all circumstances and upon all occasions. 
Upon the shoulders of such men and upon the shoulders of such 
men only, can the pillars of a free state rest with safety. In a 
free country those who do not consider, who do not study and 
heed, the obligations of duty, and who aim only at self aggran- 
dizement, are dead weights hung to the body politic, all the 
while pulling it downward towards destruction. 

There is more that might be said, and much more perhaps 
that ought to be said, showing that freedom can be maintained 
permanently, only by a sincere, earnest, self-sacrificing, patriotic 
people; but time flies and I will close by an appeal to you to 
stand by your record, to hold out as you began. 

Having devoted some of the best years of your lives to the 
hardships, privations and dangers of a soldier's life, to save the 
free institutions of your country from impending ruin, and by 
your valor having rescued those institutions from their imminent 



234 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

peril and again made them stand firm on their old foundations, 
it is impossible that you should ever become indifferent to the 
welfare of those institutions. Your country, with the assurance 
which your former devotion to her gives, looks to you specially 
of all her children as watchmen on the wall, who will exercise 
for her that ' ' eternal vigilance ' ' which ' ' is the price of liberty. ' ' 
Let your future be consistent with your past and make haste 
to do your work. 

"Art Is long and time is fleeting. 

And your hearts, though stout and brave, 
Still, like muffled drums, are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave." 

The noon-day of your lives is reached and soon the lengthen- 
ing shadows of their declining sun will admonish you that the 
half-way house has been passed and that the night of the grave 
is approaching. "Weary not in well-doing; and give your voice 
and your influence always for your country, so that, when the 
end shall come, with the consciousness that you have fought the 
good fight and kept the faith, victorious over the grave and with 
death disarmed of its sting, you 

"Without a sigh, 
A change of feature or a shaded smile 
Can give your hands to the stem messenger. 
And, as a glad child seeks his father's arms, 

Go home." 



ADDRESSES. 235 



HON. ANDREW SALTER 'WOODS, LL. D. 

A Memoir Contributed to the Public Exercises at Dart- 
mouth College, June 23, 1880, in Commemoration of Sev- 
eral Judges, Graduates of the College, then Recently 
Deceased. 

Appropriate honors, at fit time and place, are due from the 
living to the dead. Brief reviews of the lives and characters of 
deceased graduates, as a part of the exercises at a regular anni- 
versary of the college, cannot be regarded as inappropriate, 
especially when such reviews portray lives and characters 
worthy of study and imitation. An opportunity to be taught 
is given hereby, while at the same time a proper tribute is paid 
to the memory of departed excellence. 

Andrew S. Woods must be classed among the eminent de- 
ceased graduates of the college. Bom in the year 1803, he was 
graduated in the class of 1825 ; and, having studied law and been 
admitted to the bar, he began the practice of his profession in 
the year 1828. 

He continued in a successful and lucrative practice until the 
year 1840. In October, 1840, he was appointed one of the asso- 
ciate justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New Hamp- 
shire, and held that position until March, 1855, when he was 
appointed chief justice of that court. He held the last named 
office until the court over which he presided was abolished,— 
not on account of any fault of his in that dignified position, or 
of his associates, but by reason of one of those wild and undis- 
criminating political tornadoes that sometimes sweep over the 
country and upset everything and everybody, regardless of what 
ought to command respect and of what is really meritorious. He 
then resumed the practice of the law, and was more or less 
engaged therein until his death, in June, 1863. 

In estimating the character of a man who has made his mark 
on his day and generation the first inquiry is— What are the 
peculiarities that distinguish him from ordinary men ? 



236 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

In the case of Judge Woods, I should say that the prominent 
peculiarities of his mind were an accurate discrimination and a 
judgment that seldom erred. It was this that enabled him to 
discern in all his undertakings what to do, and what to omit to 
do. It was this that made him a safe adviser for his clients, and 
enabled him never to mistake the kind of action he ought to 
bring, and never to mistake the law applicable to the facts in 
his case. It was this, combined with industry and strict integ- 
rity, that enabled him to be successful in the management of his 
private affairs, and to make pecuniary investments that were 
safe and profitable. It was this, combined with a vigorous sense 
of justice, that enabled him while on the bench to search out 
and find the right with promptness, however complicated, con- 
flicting or voluminous the testimony might be. It was this, 
combined with firmness, that impressed upon the community in 
which he moved, and upon everybody with whom he came in 
contact, the idea that he was a strong man, and that it would be 
safe to follow where he would lead. 

I may remark here, generally, that his domestic relations were 
most congenial; that at his death he left a worthy widow and 
affectionate children to deplore the loss of a kind husband and 
an indulgent father. 

I will not particularize on this point, but confine my special 
comments to his life and character, as manifested outside of the 
domestic circle and as known to the public. The public knew 
him at the bar, on the bench, and as a citizen; and they saw 
him, in each of these positions, discharge his duties ably and 
fairly. 

As a lawyer, his cases were always well prepared. The law 
was carefully looked up and well considered. The evidence was 
sifted, and all impertinent and immaterial matter rejedted. 
Only what would tell on the matters in issue was put before the 
court and jury. He never sought to dazzle the court by large 
displays of learning; but he always knew all the law needed 
for the case in hand ; and he had a very terse and vigorous way 
of expressing to the court his views of the law. 

Nobody ever claimed that he was a brilliant advocate. In 
fact, he does not seem ever to have studied what are under- 



ADDRESSES. 237 

stood to be the peculiar graces of oratory, or to have cared about 
them; but he had a very clean-cut way of stating the issues in 
the case on trial, and of narrating the evidence bearing on those 
issues, so that nobody could help understanding. 

He was a successful lawyer, and he won his success in the 
legitimate way — by hard knocks and honest labor, directed by 
keen discrimination and sound judgment. His brethren at the 
bar often called upon him for assistance in doubtful and intri- 
-cate cases, and always found his suggestions valuable, and every 
legal opinion he might give pretty sure, on trial of the cause, to 
be established as the law. Always in earnest, and faithful, his 
client's cause was his own until it ended. 

It was on the bench, however, that his peculiar abilities best 
fitted him to win distinction. In that position he gave universal 
satisfaction. Litigants and counsel always felt assurance that 
their cases before him would be thoroughly and impartially 
tried. He was prompt in seeing and appreciating the exact 
questions of law and fact upon which the case must turn. He 
was patient in listening to all that could be said upon the one 
side or the other, and in investigating all the authorities that 
could be found bearing on the case. His decisions were ren- 
dered with reasonable promptness, and generally were acquiesced 
in, or, if reviewed, were hardly ever reversed. Parties, after a 
trial before him and a decision rendered, whether they won or 
lost, always felt that he had tried their case ; that they had been 
fully heard, and that the best result had been reached which a 
strong mind, guided by sound judgment, after patient consid- 
eration, could attain. 

He was specially acceptable as the presiding justice at a jury 
trial. In this position very few of the most eminent judges 
equalled him. He was always self-possessed, and never made 
nervous and irritable by the annoyances of the most protracted 
trial. Very early in the trial he would apprehend the real 
issues, and be able to discern the relevancy of the evidence 
offered, and be prepared to rule thereon with promptness and 
accuracy. Business under his direction always proceeded right 
along, systematically and in order. His rulings were almost 



238 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

■universally sustained. Very few verdicts obtained at trials over 
which he presided were ever set aside. 

He was uniformly courteous; and at the same time he carried 
himself with firmness and dignity, so that matters in his court 
proceeded pleasantly and with due decorum. In the adminis- 
tration of justice he ruled himself with a strong hand, and held 
absolute dominion over his passions. He was capable, at the 
proper time and place, of boiling over with righteous indigna- 
tion; but he was always calm on the bench. He had strong 
dislikes for some persons, and equally strong friendships for 
others ; and yet the keenest observer would not be able to detect 
the slightest difference between his demeanor while on the 
bench towards the lawyer to whom, outside the courthouse, he 
would not speak, and the lawyer with whom he was on terms of 
intimate friendship. He gave the same patient hearing to the 
arguments of both, and weighed what made for one and the other 
in the same impartial scales. He was absolutely blind to every- 
thing except the inquiry, which way, upon the law and the evi- 
dence, do the scales of justice incline? In guarding against 
favoring his friends, or doing injustice to his enemies, he never 
lost his balance and leaned the other way. He was strong 
enough to stand straight. In trials before him, both friend and 
foe got justice as equally and exactly as a clear intellect and a 
sound judgment could measure it out to them. 

He never made large displays of legal learning. He did not 
seem to have any learning of a merely ornamental character. 
When he cited an authority, it was one that illustrated the point 
to which he cited it. His knowledge was for use. He always 
knew all the law that the case or the occasion required. His 
legal knowledge seemed to lie undisturbed in some private store- 
house of the mind until it was wanted for actual use. It was 
then brought out, and this statement and application of it were 
seldom disturbed. He was familiar enough with all the sources 
from which a knowledge of the common law is derived to make 
his legal opinion a very safe guide. None of the eminent jurists 
who were his contemporaries could be relied upon more fully in 
this respect. He had a very accurate perception of the relation 
between different things or ideas, — of their adaptation or non- 



ADDRESSES. 239 

adaptation; of their consistency or inconsistency. In short, he 
was endowed with very good common-sense. He was quick to 
see the right; his sense of duty constrained him to pursue it. 
His steadiness of purpose enabled him to stand to his work until 
it was accomplished. 

The subject of constitutional law was within the scope of his 
habitual thoughts and inquiries. He abhorred a government 
with absolute power, and had very positive convictions as to 
the necessity of restraining arbitrary power by constitutional 
limitations. He was a great admirer of our peculiar system of 
free government, by which all local matters are left to be con- 
trolled by the local government, while matters involving the 
general welfare are alone entrusted to the federal government. 

If circumstances had placed him on the bench of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, he would have been the right man 
in the right place. His keen discrimination, his sound judgment 
and sterling patriotism, would have made him a fit arbitrator to 
sit upon these constantly recurring questions as to the precise 
boundary between state sovereignty and federal supremacy. 
The fact that he did not serve in that position is the misfortune 
of the people rather than his. He did his work, and demon- 
strated what he was, in the field allotted him. His character is 
the same and his memory as dear as they would have been if 
he had occupied a more elevated place than he did. 

Men like him must always be the chief reliance to preserve the 
well-being of a country where the popular will controls. Men 
like him, however humble or exalted in station, are blessings 
to their friends, guides and counsellors for the community in 
which they live, and pillars to uphold the state of which they are 
citizens. Death does not end their usefulness. They leave their 
good works and examples behind them, to be carried forward on 
the stream of time to the countless generations of the future. 

Andrew S. Wood was an upright and patriotic citizen, an 
able lawyer, and incorruptible judge. He has left behind him a 
record highly prized by his friends, honorable to the college 
that was his alma mater, and to the country that gave him birth. 

Peace to his ashes! 

"The sweet remembrance of the just 
Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust." 



240 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 



CERTAIN POLITICAL CONDITIONS AND TENDENCIES 
WHICH IMPERIL THE INTEGRITY AND INDEPEN- 
DENCE OF THE JUDICIARY. 

Annual Address Delivered Before the Grafton and Coos Bar 
Association at Lancaster, N. H., December 29, 1882. 

Gentlemen of the Bar of Grafton and Coos Counties: 

I suppose that I am expected to make at this time a formal 
address; but since receiving notice that this duty had been 
assigned to me, I have not had time to prepare such an address, 
and shall therefore be obliged in this respect to disappoint your 
expectations. 

There is enough that ought to be said on this occasion, and if 
I had had opportunity to put it in shape to suit me I would like 
to say it, or at least I would like to try to say some of it. 

As it is, all that I can do, and all that I shall attempt to do, 
will be simply to call attention to some of the evils and calami- 
ties under which we, and the public in general, are suffering; 
to point out their origin, and to introduce to you a few ideas 
in reference to which, it seems to me, there ought to be, on the 
part of the bar of New Hampshire, earnest thought, discussion, 
and action. 

In this country there is a close connection between the bar 
and the bench. The same thing is true of every country where 
the common law prevails; indeed, I think the same thing must 
be true everywhere under the system of jurisprudence that 
secures even a tolerable administration of justice. 

The elevation or depression of either the bench or the bar will 
ultimately affect both alike. An irrepressible conflict is inaug- 
urated at once between an ignorant, perverse, and tyrannical 
court and an enlightened, upright, and fearless bar, and it will 
go on until one is sufficiently elevated or the other sufficiently 
degraded so that the two will harmonize. It will go on until 



ADDRESSES. 241 

either the court becomes more learned, less perverse, and more 
just, or the bar sinks into mere indolent, craven pettifoggers. 

While the pillars of society stand as they now stand, the bench 
and the bar must remain mutually dependent on each other. 

No professional fame that a lawyer can acquire is worth much, 
unless it is indorsed by the learned court in which he practises; 
nor can the reputation of a judge or a jurist be considered as 
valuable if it be not awarded to him by the discriminating 
judgment of an intelligent bar. 

The past history of this country shows that in the main the 
bench and the bar have been true to the great trusts which have 
been committed to their hands. There has been generally that 
careful, painstaking application of the law which at the same 
time vindicates the law and does justice to everybody. The 
fundamental law has been thoroughly discussed and well ex- 
pounded, and thus the liberties and immunities of the citizen 
made clear and secure. The principles of the common law have 
been so fairly and justly applied to our peculiar instituions and 
circumstances, that the public mind has settled down and rests 
with a feeling of security. As a consequence of this, our im- 
mense resources have been developed, and all the interests of a 
great and growing people have been greatly advanced and are 
still rapidly advancing. 

In the past the bench and bar have worked zealously to- 
gether, and the fruits of their joint labors have been glorious. 
To them the country is largely indebted for what has been ac- 
complished in its behalf, and for its present well being. To 
them and to their continued fidelity to the great trusts that 
they have hitherto so faithfully executed, the country must 
incur a large additional indebtedness, if the brilliant hopes of its 
future greatness are ever to be realized. 

I consider the present occasion a fit opportunity for the 
discussion of what is due from the bar to the bench, and 
from the bench to the bar; for the discussion of what each 
lawyer and each judge owes to himself, to his associates, and 
to the public, and for criticisms upon their respective doings so 
far as those doings characterize the general administration of 
justice. The path of duty for the bench and bar is plain 

16 



242 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

enough, and the individual members of those bodies need not 
err if they seek to find their respective paths of duty with the 
desire to walk therein. 

In the first place it is the duty of judges and of lawyers 
to know the law, to seek diligently for it until they find it out. 
They should not only know the law, but they should also know 
its limitations, the reasons on which it is founded, the rights by 
it to be maintained and the wrongs by it to be remedied. 

In the second place it is their duty, unawed by fear and 
unbribed by the hope of reward, to apply the law to the case 
in hand with such painstaking care as thereby to establish the 
rights of all concerned and to wrong nobody. 

It is easy work for a judge to get on to some little comer 
of a case and then to plant himself on the strict letter of the 
law and push ahead, ignoring all other considerations. In this 
way he can write out with a very little labor an opinion that 
will sound well when read with the distinguishing features of 
the case suppressed ; but such a disposition of cases is quackery 
on the bench, and the judge who practices it marks himself as 
an indolent, reckless, and unscrupulous judge. 

It never will do for a judge to seize hold of the mere words 
in which a rule of the law is couched, and then to shut up his 
eyes and ride roughshod over its limitations, heedless of the 
reason why it exists, of the particular wrong to be redressed 
and of the specific rights that are in danger. 

Principles apparently well established, upon which impor- 
tant rights are resting in supposed security, may be thereby 
summarily wiped out. There may be a general slaughter of the 
innocents, sickening to behold, and wrong be triumphantly ele- 
vated and made master of the situation. It is just as likely to 
be so as any other way. 

An able and vigilant bar cannot give us the assurance that 
justice will be the outcome of legal proceedings unless we also 
have an intelligent, industrious, independent, and conscientious 
court. 

The judge that stoops to demagogy, or becomes servile to 
any mass or set of men, or to any party, is no proper judge. 
He is simply a tyrant, or what is infinitely worse, the mere tool 



ADDRESSES. 243 

of tyrants. An upright court worsliips the God of justice, and 
knows no master save the law. 

The rights of individuals and of corporations, both public and 
private, are to be determined and settled by the Constitution, by 
the statutes, by the law as it has been authoritatively ex- 
pounded, by immemorial usage, and by those everlasting prin- 
ciples of justice that underlie the organization of every civilized 
society. Judges and lawyers cannot be aided in their respective 
vocations, except by what helps them to see deeper and more 
clearly into the law and enables them so to apply it as to answer 
the end for which it was ordained. 

It is always wrong to bring, or to attempt to bring, party 
politics to bear upon the settlement of legal questions. A judge, 
as a judge, has no business with party politics, and has no legiti- 
mate use for them. He should never be put on or off the bench 
because he is or because he is not a partisan of a particular 
stripe. The idea of mixing up a certain amount of political 
partisanship of one kind with a certain amount of political par- 
tisanship of one another kind and putting the mixture on the 
bench and calling it an impartial court would seem, inasmuch 
as partisanship of every kind is out of place there, to be a gross 
absurdity. I should just as soon think that profane swearing 
is essential to qualify a preacher to give in the pulpit sound gos- 
pel preaching, as that political partisanship is essential to qual- 
ify a man for a seat on the bench. It seems to me that it is 
just as sensible to claim that the pulpit is all right because it 
is supplied by a certain number of preachers who can curse one 
way profanely, and a certain number who can curse the other 
way profanely, as it is to claim that the court is all right be- 
cause a part of the judges are Republicans and a part of them 
are Democrats. 

Unless some mischievous muddle is required, or unless it 
is necessary that somebody should be humbugged, there cannot 
be any occasion to constitute a court in that way. There is no 
sense or reason in holding that you have built up a good thing 
because you have put two diverse elements in a place where 
neither of them belongs. There is no precedent for it in nature 
or history and none in poetry, unless the decoction prepared 



244 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

by Shakespeare's witches in the play of "Macbeth" be regarded 
as one. 

The only legitimate questions to be asked in the appointment 
of a judge are, Is he capable? Is he honest? Does he know 
the law and will he be governed by it? I do not know of any 
safe rule by which to select judges, except to select them from 
those members of the bar who have there already run successful 
careers, illustrated throughout by distinguished industry, 
probity, and ability. To appoint judges by any other rule is 
simply to make an experiment which would probably prove a 
failure. 

The present age is certainly in some respects, to a marked 
degree, an age of progress. The laws that control the forces of 
nature have been studied, and the practical knowledge thus ac- 
quired has been made to promote the convenience and subserve 
the necessities of man very largely in very many ways. The 
steam engine and the telegraph are some of the trophies that 
have rewarded those students who have wisely applied the 
knowledge obtained by a diligent study of the laws of nature. 

But I am afraid that it cannot be said that our modem 
civilization is intrenching the citizen and making him more se- 
cure in the enjoyment of his rights of person and property. I 
am afraid that it cannot be said with truth that there is progress 
in that direction. 

There certainly is good reason to fear that the safeguards in 
the Constitution and in the common law for life, liberty, and 
property are getting shaky and weather-beaten. Those great safe- 
guards can be said to be secure only when they are watched 
over by an enlightened, independent, and incorruptible judi- 
ciary. 

The thoughtful man sees danger ahead whenever the inde- 
pendence of the judiciary is menaced, and he sees the last of 
free institutions when its independence is hopelessly overthrown. 

The present standing of our courts, both state and national, 
when contrasted with their former standing, is not so encourag- 
ing as to flatter one very much who desires to see our free insti- 
tutions perpetuated. It is very certain that the Supreme Court 
of the United States does not have the confidence and the pro- 



ADDRESSES. 245 

found respect of the people now as it did in the days of Mar- 
shall and Taney. This court, the final arbiter which must de- 
termine where it is that the Constitution has marked the boun- 
daries between federal supremacy and the reserved rights of the 
states, has duties and responsibilities the highest and gravest 
that were ever imposed upon an earthly tribunal. 

That court is the great regulator of our magnificent govern- 
mental machinery, and its life depends upon preserving its 
independence and purity. When General Grant, as president 
of the United States, put two puppets of his own upon the 
bench of that court, to reverse one of its solemn decrees upon a 
great constitutional question, he struck a deadly blow at the 
liberties of his country. He degraded the court in its own eyes, 
as well as in the eyes of the world. His blow was aimed at a 
vital part of our complex but beautiful system of free govern- 
ment, and its effect was to weaken the great barrier that opposes 
the advent of imperialism. Up to this time the Supreme Court 
of the United States had not been packed for any purpose, nor 
had its decisions been coerced or tampered with by either of the 
coordinate branches of the government. 

If this act is to be recognized as a precedent, then indeed there 
has been a most dangerous precedent inaugurated, and the law 
hereafter is to be the will of the man who happens to sit in the 
presidential chair. 

The republic will not be safe unless that act be branded with 
a disgrace so deep that no one will dare recognize it as a pre- 
cedent and that no one will remember it except for the infamy 
which surrounds it. 

But whatever may be said about the deterioration of the fed- 
eral courts, it cannot be denied that the courts of New Hamp- 
shire have made far greater downward progress. The sim- 
plicity, uniformity, and certainty that characterized the appli- 
cation of the law by the courts in the days of Richardson, 
Parker, and Gilchrist have given place to the novelty, variety, 
and sensationalism which characterize the application of the 
law by our courts today. Formerly the experienced practi- 
tioner could advise his clients as to their cases and the law ap- 
plicable to them with confidence, but now the greater the ex- 



246 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

perience that the legal practitioner has had in our courts the less 
confidence will he feel in any opinion which he can give. 

If anybody had a specific case that he proposed to test in 
court and should want a positive opinion as to what the re- 
sult would be, he would be obliged to consult a lawyer not 
familiar with the way and manner in which the law is author- 
itatively expounded and applied in New Hampshire at the pres- 
ent time. 

I think the experience of every lawyer who has had much 
recent practice in our courts has generally been about this — 
that having brought his suit after careful consideration, and 
got or lost a verdict, and having landed his case in the Supreme 
Court, he has found it there finally disposed of by an opinion 
perhaps of great length, winding in a circuitous, roundabout 
way of novel reasoning through many pages of the printed re- 
ports, to a conclusion of which he never dreamed ; or perhaps he 
has found the same conclusion reached in about four lines, not 
enough of it for the head note of an ordinary opinion. And after 
getting the opinion in his case, whether it is the long one or the 
short one, and studying it carefully and trying to get at the 
principle of law settled by it, he has found, on mature delibera- 
tion, that the most definite conclusion he is able to arrive at is 
the conclusion that if he should bring a new suit just like the 
old one, resting on the same grounds, he might lose it and he 
might not. 

Sharp cuttings up, novel methods, sudden thrusts and in- 
cisive words deriding all precedents and dictated by the im- 
pulse of momentary inspiration, however entertaining they may 
be at all times to the unreasoning multitude, and however proper 
they may be on some occasions, are not the things to aid in the 
just disposition of legal causes and in that business are a poor 
substitute for the accumulated wisdom of ages. The complicated 
affairs of civilized society never can be adjusted fairly in this 
way, and when we remember that the sole object for which 
courts are created is to dispense justice, argument becomes un- 
necessary to prove that there has been a decadence in the char- 
acter of the courts in New Hampshire. You all must be pain- 
fully conscious of the fact. Some of you may have spoken 



ADDRESSES. 247 

about it and some of you may have been silent, but you all must 
know the fact. 

The questions that now naturally arise are : First, is there a 
remedy ? Secondly, if there is a remedy what is it ? No rational 
answer can be given to these questions unless we know the real 
character of the trouble and its cause. It must be conceded that 
the trouble is chronic in its character; it is deep seated; it has 
been a great while coming on and has gradually been getting 
worse and worse. Reasoning from analogy it would seem that 
a powerful remedy sufficient for an immediate cure might kill 
the patient. Any radical measure that should cut the trouble 
out at the roots could only be the outcome of a violent revolu- 
tion which might knock down the pillars on which society rests. 
The trouble may be incurable and yet be toned down and made 
more endurable by studying its cause or causes and removing 
the same so far as it is practicable. Indeed it is perhaps not 
impossible to effect a permanent cure in that way. I think 
the cause of the decay of the bench in New Hampshire is plain 
enough. I do not think there can be any disagreement among 
thoughtful men, whatever their party affiliations may be, as to 
what that cause is. It was throwing the judiciary into the boil- 
ing caldron of party politics and making its very existence de- 
pend on the shifting prejudices of partisan caprice. Under this 
terrible ordeal the independence, the dignity, the self-respect, 
the patient labor to do justice for the sake of doing justice, 
which charactrized the old court, withered away gradually and 
finally died out, and in their place we have got what we now 
have; what inevitably follows such a course. "We have got in 
place of what we once had on the bench, the cunning dexterity 
of the artful dodger and the meek subserviency of the pliant 
tool. 

I date the beginning of the decline of the New Hampshire 
bench at the advent of Know-Nothingism in 1855, and I ascribe 
its continued decline until it has reached its present condition, 
to adherence to the precedent then inaugurated. 

Up to 1855, for a period of nearly forty years, the judiciary 
of New Hampshire had stood substantially unchanged, and 
had been adorned by the names of many illustrious jurists. It 



248 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL, 

had done its work well and was then doing its work well. It 
had maintained and was maintaining the high and dignified 
character that becomes a judiciary of a state. It had done 
equal and exact justice to everybody, and there was no cause 
of complaint anywhere. It was not guilty of any fault and it 
was not charged with any fault. And yet in 1855 this Know- 
Nothing party, having suddenly sprung into existence in secrecy 
and having attained power through the agency of religious in- 
tolerance and race bigotry, abolished the then existing judicial 
system of New Hampshire for no earthly reason or pretence ex- 
cept to enable them, as political partisans, to create in place 
thereof a new judicial system to be supplied with judges of their 
own appointment. 

Soon after the inauguration of the new court it came to 
pass that divers officials, who had been decapitated in the 
general sweep of all the officers in the state, made in one 
form and another by the Know-Nothing party, met with sudden 
political conversions and went over and joined the party by 
whom they had been decapitated, and having thus qualified them- 
selves for seats upon the bench of the new court, some of them 
were speedily rewarded with seats thereon. In this way the rule 
was established and has remained established unto this day, that 
a man in order to be fitted to have a seat upon the bench of the 
highest court in New Hampshire must have a partisan qualifica- 
tion. 

And thus the downward career of the courts of New Hamp- 
shire began and has continued in the same direction to the pres- 
ent time. 

In this state of things, if it is desired to get a particular man 
on the bench, it will only be necessary for that man to get on 
the right side of all the file leaders and of those that do the 
*' horse-shedding" of the dominant political party, and then to 
throw a few sops and tid-bits to all the little and big isms which 
are uppermost in that party. If he attends to this business 
well and does it up thoroughly, he will get his appointment. 
But when he has got his appointment his troubles have just be- 
gun ; he must continually be consulting and placating the crowd 
of ephemeral politicians that strut across the stage of politics 



ADDRESSES. 249 

in endless procession. No matter how learned a judge may be or 
how diligently he may work or how carefully and justly he may 
apply the law, if he neglects his trotting round, if he fails 
to placate the powers that made him and the powers that may 
make him over again, when the next deal comes round he will 
be sure, sooner or later, to be left out in the cold. It is perfectly 
unreasonable to complain of our judges as individuals because 
they are arrant demagogues. What else have we a right to ex- 
pect of them? I think it is inevitable that our judges will be 
demagogues; otherwise they could not get their appointments, 
nor keep them when obtained. 

The fault lies in the character of the qualifications that are 
required to fit a man for the office of judge, and in the character 
of the conditions that are annexed to the tenure of that office ; all 
of which are outside of the Constitution and in direct violation 
of its spirit, if not its letter. 

In addition to starting our courts on their downward career, 
Know-Nothingism planted the seeds of another great evil, which 
has produced crop after crop, each succeeding crop larger than 
the former, until the demoralization has become general. I refer 
to the business of bribery at elections. Year by year this evil is 
growing in magnitude. Our people, one after another, are drop- 
ping into its vortex, suffering all the manhood in them to rot 
out of them and transforming themselves into mere cattle. The 
powers that be seem determined that this evil shall go onward 
and have free course. They put their veto upon every effort to 
obtain legislation that will tend to check it. As a natural con- 
sequence the man or the corporation or the institution of any 
sort that furnishes the money to buy up the election owns the 
plunder thus obtained, and is a power which everybody in offi- 
cial life must heed; even the judges on the bench, they must 
cater to it and placate it or be left out in the cold. It would not 
be any more disreputable to put up all the offices of every 
description at auction and knock them off, singly or in lots as 
may suit the purchaser, to the highest bidder, than it is to* make 
merchandise of the sovereign people and put up the offices at 
auction indirectly in that way. The two modes are the same in 
principle. The auction mode is a step in advance, open and 



250 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

above board. If it is settled that it is legitimate to barter votes 
for money, then it plainly follows that it is the fair way to put 
up the offices at public auction and give everybody a chance. 

Decay and dilapidation are not limited to our courts. On the 
contrary the whole body politic is infected and public virtue 
seems to be clean gone. Thirty years ago such a thing as buying 
votes with money was unheard of, and the bare suggestion that 
an election had been carried in that way would have aroused a 
perfect hurricane of popular indignation. Today votes are put 
upon the market and bought and sold as if they were ordinary, 
legitimate merchandise, and when it is proposed to strike a blow 
.at this abominable traffic by appropriate legislation, men claim- 
ing to represent all the morality and all the decency which the 
state affords stand up and squarely vote that legislation down. 
The public seems to be paralyzed and powerless. A part of 
the public is made up of those who sell their votes, a part of 
those who buy and the rest stolidly stand and look on with an 
indifference amazing to behold and hard to understand. "When- 
ever pubic opinion starts a little blaze of popular indignation 
over this and kindred evils, it is met at the polls and there 
smothered and buried out of sight with money. Everybody de- 
plores this state of things and wants reformation, but when 
it comes to action those who talk one way and vote the other are 
always in the majority. 

In view of this state of affairs it is certainly pertinent, on the 
present occasion, to inquire what part we ourselves have taken 
in the past in reference to these matters, and what part ought 
we to take in the future. While the tide has been and is thus 
drifting to the bad, what has the bar of New Hampshire been 
doing? What are they doing now and what do they propose to 
do? 

As it respects the past there never has been any such organiza- 
tion of the bar of New Hampshire as to develop concerted action 
by its members upon any subject. 

We have had many individual members of the bar who have 
lived lives of untiring industry and enjoyed a wide reputation 
for professional skill and integrity; but the influence of the 
life and labors of each has been limited to his own peculiar 



ADDRESSES. 251 

sphere. We never have made any combined and united effort 
to stay the encroachments of evil, or shape the course of events 

The present meeting is in pursuance of a plan for organizing 
the bar of two counties, Grafton and Coos, into a permanent 
association for social purposes and for the discussion of what- 
ever is interesting to lawyers, and generally for the promotion of 
all things that are wholesome and of good report. I think the 
idea is a good one. No harm can come of it and it may be pro- 
ductive of infinite good. It may be a nucleus that will grow 
and, kindling the fires of reformation, will illuminate the whole 
land, so that the clouds now obscuring the fair name of our state 
shall pass away and New Hampshire be restored to the position 
which she once held among the states of the Union, when she 
could boast with truth that she was the mother of men, of war- 
riors, of jurists, and of statesmen. Whatever we can do that 
shall redound to the honor of our profession and promote the 
purity and decency of its practice, is certainly in the direct line 
of duty. This organization will concentrate our efforts and give 
us unity and power to do good. We can promote our own well 
being; we can help the courts in the performance of their leg- 
itimate work ; and we can aid the people in securing themselves 
from the foul corruptions that are threatening the annihila- 
tion of public virtue. 

It is not an agreeable task to discuss vice, folly, and neglect 
of duty, even in a general way ; but the task becomes more deli- 
cate and harder when you are obliged to specify persons and 
things. I come now to speak of a particular neglect of duty on 
the part of the courts, which has been felt to be a very great 
grievance to the bar, and for a long time has been the subject- 
matter of loud complaints. I refer to the neglect of the courts 
in suffering themselves to get so far behind in reporting the de- 
cided cases. I know of no reason for withholding these reports ; 
I have heard none assigned. It seems to be a neglect without 
excuse or palliation. The court, with cool indifference, sees the 
bar struggling with their difficulties and groping in the dark 
while loaded with the responsibility of advising their clients 
rightly; complaints fall on deaf ears and are not heard, or if 
heard are not heeded. Nobody justifies the court in this mat- 



252 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ter; nobody will attempt to justify them. It is without parallel 
in any of the numerous state and federal courts of the Union; 
and yet the great body of our people are drifting along, appar- 
ently quiet and unconcerned, while these complaints, which 
everybody knows are real and not the mere vaporings of suitors 
and lawyers who have lost their causes, are ringing in their 
ears. 

The indifference of the court and of the public generally to 
these complaints would seem to be unaccountable; but upon 
deeper inquiry and on consideration of the real situation the 
reason for the neglect and for the indifference to complaints is 
plain enough. The real tenure by which the judges hold their 
offices is the reason. I have already shown that our judges do 
not in fact hold their offices during good behavior, in accord- 
ance with the Constitution, but only during the pleasure of the 
partisan power that happens to be uppermost for the time be- 
ing, in accordance with a precedent permanently established in 
violation of the Constitution, 

A man who finds himself in the possession of official power and 
dignity wants to keep them, and turns his attention naturally 
to such measures as he thinks will make him secure in that 
possession. 

When a judge is carried into office on a partisan wave he 
knows the potency of that wave and fears it, and he knows too 
that there may be a reflex wave also potent, and he goes to work 
by instinct to keep the powers that be placated, and also, if he 
does his work thoroughly, to placate the powers that soon may 
be. This business will assert itself and keep itself uppermost 
in his mind and in spite of himself urge him on or hold him 
back in everything he does. Applying the law so as to do jus- 
tice, and writing out consistent opinions and publishing them for 
the bar to read, are secondary matters, to be laid on the table 
and attended to when the important business is finished. The 
situation of the judges on the bench, the manner in which they 
got there, the tenure by which they hold their places, and the in- 
fluence which necessarily all the while must be operating upon 
them are such that, assuming for the judges the ordinary frail- 
ties of humanity, results similar to those of which we complain 



ADDRESSES. 253 

must necessarily follow. Under the circumstances it would be 
unreasonable to expect that the legal opinions of the court 
would not be more or less sensational and more or less shaded by 
the influences operating upon them, and that those opinions 
would never conflict with each other and the established prin- 
ciples of the law. It would also be unreasonable to expect the 
court to have the time or the inclination to labor diligently in 
the preparation of their opinions for publication unless it might 
be some special opinions which they desired promulgated for 
effect. Considering all the surroundings of the court, the many 
things they have had to do, the strait-jacket in which they have 
been laced, now pinching here and now pinching there, I think, 
so far as their decided cases have come to our knowledge, their 
opinions are no more sensational or warped or conflicting or con- 
tradictory of established principles than what, in view of such 
surroundings, ought to have been expected, and I think that the 
court have furnished us with all their opinions in the cases by 
them decided which they had the time or the inclination to fur- 
nish. On the whole I am inclined to the opinion that it has 
probably been better, both for us and the court, than it would 
have been if we had had the decided cases fully and promptly 
reported. In case we had been promptly informed of all the 
decisions of the court, I doubt not we should have been worse 
bewildered, more confused, and less certain as to the law than 
we have been, and the court, while holding under its present 
tenure, needs to be in light marching order, unencumbered by 
the worse than useless baggage that a map of loose, contradictory 
precedents would be. The call for reformation is loud enough, 
but the individual members of the court are to blame only for 
taking places under such a system. Having accepted their 
positions they have acted as their surrounding compelled them 
to act. A bird with clipped wings cannot fly, nor can a man 
loaded with chains walk with freedom. The fault is in the per- 
version of our judicial system, which has been wrenched from 
its constitutional moorings and set adrift on the wild waves, 
under the guidance of a crazy, Know-Nothing precedent. 

It may be well enough to make an effort to obtain a report 
of the decided cases by securing more stringent legislation on 



254 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

that subject; but I doubt about our getting much satisfaction 
in that way so long as the court remains as it is and the judges 
understand their tenure of office to be what they now understand 
it to be. It has been suggested that we make a new court, that 
is, that our present judicial system be abolished and a new one 
substituted in place of it, and that either the old set of judges, 
purged of the obnoxious members, be reappointed or a new set 
altogether be appointed. 

This would be a mere continuation of the see-saw business 
inaugurated by Know-Nothingism in 1855, and would result in 
knocking the court down on to a plane still lower than the one 
they now occupy. It would be going from bad to worse and 
simply create a new court with a tenure more precarious than the 
one under which the present court holds. I think the story about 
the traveler who objected to driving away the swarm of insects 
that covered his person because a more hungry swarm might 
come has application here. 

"We want no more new courts until there is a new order of 
things, until the lost independence of the judiciary is restored 
and it is understood that judges hold their offices under the 
Constitution and not subject to the Know-Nothing precedent of 
1855. "When the morning of the day that shall usher in this 
new order of things shall dawn, then, and not till then, either 
let the old court be bom again or a court altogether new be 
created. That day will be a glorious day when we shall see the 
court clothed with self-respect and with the dignity of the olden 
time, seeking diligently to do justice for the sake of doing 
justice and not for the sake of making a display the fame whereof 
shall be wafted on the winds and blazed on the house-tops, while 
the great body of their labors lies sleeping in oblivion. The 
judges will not then be behindhand with their reports. Day- 
light will then shine on their works, and we shall rejoice in the 
possession of the means of knowing what the law is. 

The judiciary will be out of politics and will be no longer a 
machine with which to run politicians or to be min by politicians. 
Legal opinions will cease to be issued from the bench in the 
interests of politicians or to please popular fancies. 

A judge will be selected for his probity, for his learning, for 



ADDRESSED. 265 

kis great industry, and for his sound legal discrimination and 
judgment. His politics will be let alone. It will be assumed 
that he is not fit for a judge unless he knows enough to vote in- 
telligently and conscientiously and can safely be trusted with 
that responsibility. 

This new order of things may be afar off and it may come 
soon. I believe it will come some time ; all we can do will be to 
hope earnestly, pray devoutly, and labor diligently for its 
coming at an early day. 

In conclusion I submit to you whether or not I have exag- 
gerated the evils I have named and whether or not those evils 
have originated from the causes I have suggested. I also submit 
that it is time for reform ; that the best way to secure reform is 
to remove the cause of evil ; that the people ought to be awakened 
to a realizing sense of the dangers by which they are surrounded, 
and that they ought to be induced to rescue the elective fran- 
chise from prostitution and to restore to the judiciary its con- 
stitutional independence. 

And further I urge that reform is necessary, not only for the 
preservation of the welfare of our people, but it is necessary 
in order that the honor of our state may be saved and that the 
name of New Hampshire may not become a byword and a re- 
proach in the mouths of her sister states. 



256 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 



THE LIFE AND DEMOCRACY OF JOHN HATCH 

GEORGE. 

Address Delivered at Manchester, N. H., Before the Granite 
State Club, June 27, 1888. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I speak tonight in memory of a distinguished citizen of the 
state, with whom, in his lifetime, most of us were associated, 
and whose name is familiar to all — Col. John H. George. 

There is danger on all such occasions that speech may not be 
bounded by its proper limitations. On the one hand the very gen- 
erally accepted rule, ''Nihil de mortuis nisi bonum" may tempt 
the speaker to indulge in extravagant, indiscriminate, and con- 
sequently unmeaning praise. On the other hand, by closely 
analyzing and justly reviewing the character and work of a pro- 
nounced, positive man, slumbering animosities and forgotten 
prejudices may be revived. I do not fear falling into the lan- 
guage of unmeaning eulogy, but I do apprehend that the duty 
which I have undertaken requires me to be specific, to discuss 
Colonel George as we knew him, to consider his political and 
professional services and the times in which and the circum- 
stances under which those services were rendered. At his death 
he had been for many years a trusted leader of the Democracy. 
In their service he was prompt, fearless, able and untiring. He 
is now in his grave. His last blow is struck, and his voice is 
silenced forever. Everybody, friend and foe alike, stands today 
ready to honor his memory and to accord to him singleness of 
purpose, sincerity of heart, and that steadfast earnestness which 
can come only of honest conviction. But we are not here at this 
time merely to honor his memory. We are here to study his 
character, to review his life-work and to be instructed by his 
example, and especially to review his political teachings and 
example. Such a review as the one last named necessarily in- 
volves the consideration of political parties, of their principles, 



ADDRESSES. 257 

of their attitude towards each, other and towards the country 
during his life-time. In the discussion of these matters I shall 
speak from the Democratic standpoint, but, as I believe, in 
accordance with impartial history as hereafter it must be written. 
The shadows of coming events seem to indicate that the govern- 
ment of this vast country is about to be more fully than now 
confided to the Democracy. The hopes of humanity everywhere 
are for the perpetuity of our great Republic. Within its wide 
borders freedom exists and the masses of men have attained a 
higher and better life than was ever enjoyed here or elsewhere 
by any people in any age. The promises for the future are 
boundless; prosperity without limit, growth incalculable and an 
increase of all the materials necessary for the enjoyment and 
happiness of countless millions. Nothing but our own folly and 
wickedness can prevent the fulfillment of these promises. In 
view of the more than probability that the responsibility of guid- 
ing the Ship of State is about to rest permanently upon the 
shoulders of the Democracy, it behooves each individual member 
of that party to consider his position and to get a realizing 
sense of the share of the work which he ought to perform. 

Our government was created for the people, by the people. 
The people are the sovereigns. Office-holders are the servants of 
the people, and are made and unmade by the breath of the peo- 
ple. So long as the people are intelligent, vigilant and incor- 
ruptible, their servants in official stations will be faithful; but 
when the people relax their vigilance, ignore their power and 
barter their franchises, their representatives will be false, their 
liberties be lost and the country ruined. 

No citizen can afford to be ignorant of his position or to fail 
in the performance of his share of the work necessary for the 
well-being of the republic. These duties he owes to himself, to 
the state, to posterity, and to his God. We are not honest party 
men if we are party men for the purpose of getting the spoils of 
office and fattening at the public crib. When partisanship sinks 
to that plane it becomes one of the most unmitigated of curses, 
and fit language of malediction for it cannot be found. We are 
Democratic because we believe that the ideas, theories and 
principles of the Democracy are adapted to our institutions and 

17 



258 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

to the wants of the people, and when honestly applied in the 
practical administration of the government, will be sure to work 
out the greatest good to the greatest number. 

Political parties have no legitimate existence except for the 
welfare of the country, and the political party that guards most 
safely the muniments of liberty, that vindicates with the greatest 
firmness the national honor, that gives the largest encouragement 
to the development of the resources of the country, that opens up 
the broadest fields for industrial and commercial activity, and 
that most steadfastly seeks to increase the enjoyment and hap- 
piness of all men by elevating them to a higher and better level, 
is the party to which the people ought to entrust the administra- 
tion of the government, and it is the party to which they will 
entrust its administration, if not at the first opportunity, most 
certainly when the sober second thought has been taken. 

A review of the political teachings and example of Colonel 
George will be a review of the grand old doctrines of the 
Democracy as expounded and illustrated by the fathers, by such 
men as Jefferson, Madison and Jackson. Those doctrines guided 
the government for more than fifty years, and during that time 
made peace and good will to exist throughout our borders, and 
under the Constitution protected liberty and secured the perfect 
enjoyment thereof. And today the political clouds that have 
darkened the public mind are fast disappearing, and we can see 
that those doctrines still live in the hearts of the people and 
will soon resume their ancient sway. 

We are not compelled to study Colonel George as a politician 
in order to understand his character. His character was written 
all over him and illustrated by every breath he drew and every 
word he uttered. We want his example as a politician for in- 
struction; we like to hold up to view a politician who had a 
faith, who believed what he taught. His sincerity and earnest- 
ness were made manifest in whatever he did. He hated all 
shams, lashed those who assumed virtues which they did not 
possess and rebuked canting hypocrites of every sort. The men 
who dealt in isms, schemers and cranks got no quarter from him. 
He never "crooked the pliant hinges of the knee" to anybody 
that "thrift might follow fawning." He could stand alone, 
and, if necessary, fight his own battles. 



ADDRESSES. 259 

His identity could never be mistaken. "Wherever he was, 
whether in the court-house or on the stump, whether in school- 
meeting or before an agricultural society, he was always the same 
man. The mental forces he possessed were always at command 
and could be brought to bear at any time upon the matter in 
hand. He appeared to handle any subject that he attempted 
to elucidate with as much ease and familiarity as he would if 
he had made its study a specialty. He would deliver essays 
on agriculture and talk to farmers about the rotation of crops, 
the difference in soils, the breaking of colts, and all matters 
pertaining to good or bad husbandry to their satisfaction, and 
apparently with the same accurate comprehension of what he 
was talking about, that he would exhibit in the argument of a 
legal question in a court of law. 

Colonel George, ever ready to respond when speech was in- 
vited, got no credit for possessing intellectual power in the way 
some men do who ' ' are reputed wise for saying nothing. ' ' Open 
as the day, with nothing behind the door, brave, and with 
characteristics clean cut and marked, he lived a life of which 
his friends may be proud and which his enemies must respect. 

He was bom on the 24th day of November, 1824, at the 
paternal mansion in Concord, N. H., where he resided through 
life, and died on the 5th day of February, 1888. His parents 
belonged to that good old New England stock which has been so 
prolific in the production of strong and leading men in every 
department of life, and which has done so much all over the 
country in subduing the wilderness and planting civilization. 
His father, John George, a man of probity, character and influ- 
ence, a native of Hopkinton, in early life became a citizen of 
Concord, and died there in the year 1843. His mother, Mary 
Hatch, inherited the sterling qualities of her family. She was 
the daughter of Samuel Hatch, of Greenland, who was the 
grandfather of the distinguished lawyer, the Hon. Albert R. 
Hatch, late of Portsmouth, now deceased, and also of another 
distinguished lawyer, the Hon. J. S. H. Frink, of Portsmouth, 
still living, with long years of increasing honors in prospect. I 
have no data as to any specific incidents actually occuring during 
the boyhood of Colonel George that would indicate, in embryo, 
the character which afterwards was developed, but I have no 



260 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

doubt such incidents did occur. I have no doubt that he so 
fought the inevitable battles of boyhood, and that he so carried 
himself during the incipient stages of life as to give promise 
of the manly courage, the ability, the fidelity and the sincerity 
which characterized his maturer years. After a preparatory 
course in the public schools and academy at Concord, he entered 
Dartmouth College in 1840. At the end of three years he was 
called home by the death of his father and did not finish the 
remainder of his college course. 

He maintained a good standing in his class for diligence, 
scholarship and good deportment. He was popular with his 
fellow students, and contracted with some of them strong ties 
of friendship that lasted through life. His three years in college 
gave him the substantial part of the training of the full course, 
and after the graduation of his class the faculty conferred upon 
him the graduating degree. The abrupt termination of his col- 
legiate life occurred before he had formed any definite plans as to 
the future. Fortunately for him, at this time he fell under the 
keen observation of Gen. Franklin Pierce, who, detecting the 
germs of promise that the young man possessed advised him to 
study the law, and ojffered to take charge of his studies. Accord- 
ingly he entered, as a student, the law office of Pierce & Fowler, 
and studied diligently for three years, when, after passing a 
creditable examination, he was admitted to the bar. He there- 
upon entered upon the active practice of the law, and began a 
successful professional career that lasted for more than forty 
years. There has been no time in the history of New Hamp- 
shire when its bar could boast of more brilliant advocates or 
abler lawyers than it could at the date of the admission of 
Colonel George to its ranks. At that time Franklin Pierce, Ira 
Perley, Charles G. Atherton, John P. Hale, Daniel M. Christie, 
John S. Wells, Josiah Quincy, and a host of other lawyers, with 
kindred powers and scarcely less known to fame, were in the 
fuU tide of successful practice and making the legal profession 
in New Hampshire to shine with a lustre seldom equalled any- 
where. 

Colonel George, entering upon his legal career in the face of 
such formidable competition, soon acquired the good will and 
respect of his associates at the bar. Clients and business rapidly 



ADDRESSES. 261 

gathered around him. At different times he was associated in 
the practice of the law as partner with several gentlemen, all 
of whom were eminent in the profession — at first with General 
Peaslee, and then, for a short time, with the Hon. Sidney Web- 
ster, and subsequently with Judge Foster and the Hon. Charles 
P. Sanborn. All through life his labors alternated between law 
and politics. Those subjects were so nearly allied in his mind 
that he could turn with infinite ease from one to the other. At 
an early age he gained the confidence of the people and became 
a popular favorite. The Democracy committed to his hands 
important trusts. He was chairman of the Democratic State 
Committee, and during the administration of General Pierce was 
United States district attorney, and in these positions he dis- 
charged his duties ably and efficiently. Apparently a seat in 
Congress and a brilliant national reputation was near at hand, 
all opposing political elements being everywhere beaten; but in 
the political campaign of 1855, those elements organized in 
secret the aggregated prejudices and superstitions of centuries, 
and with that artillery under cover, opened fire on the Democ- 
racy. Unaware of this extraordinary attack, stuggling bravely 
with unseen foes and vainly striking at the empty air, the 
Democracy went down and were submerged in the sea of Know- 
Nothingism. The Democracy of New Hampshire "met the Black 
Knight with his visor down ' ' before his wily tactics were under- 
stood, and they were vanquished. Since the advent of Know- 
Nothingism, at each recurring election in New Hampshire the 
Democracy have marshalled their forces in the face of almost 
uniform defeat, with full ranks, and with a courage and devo- 
tion which could come only from a patriotic sense of duty and an 
abiding confidence in the justice and ultimate triumph of their 
cause. Today, an examination of the political situation shows 
that the ranks of the opposition are so far disintegrated and 
honey-combed, that one more united, determined effort on the 
part of the Democracy, such as they have been making all along, 
will redeem the state and restore to it good government. 

Sectional hate and bitter passions engendered in the fiery 
furnace of civil war have been carefully nursed by the Repub- 
lican party. That party has labored most assiduously to pre- 



262 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

vent the wounds of the war from healing. They have ripped open 
its bloody gashes on the recurrence of each political campaign, 
and, by fierce appeals, sought to fire the Northern heart, as if 
war with all its horrors still existed between the North and the 
South. This unpatriotic mode of conducting political warfare, 
now generally known by the inelegant but expressive phrase, 
"waving the bloody shirt," gave the Republican party short- 
lived gains and permanent loss. It created in their favor at the 
North an unreasoning madness for a season only, while it alien- 
ated from them forever the hearts of the Southern people. There 
is a compensatory justice in the workings of the ordinances of 
Divine Providence, as it respects parties and individuals, and 
everything in this world. Whoever seeks to gain temporary 
advantages by undue means is sure to suffer in the end. The 
constant "waving of the bloody shirt" has made the South solid 
against the Republican party and solid in favor of any party 
that comprehends within its creed the idea of promoting and 
establishing union, harmony and prosperity everywhere all over 
this broad land, and knows no North, no South, no East, no 
"West. The Southern people shun with instinctive dread the 
dominion of the Republican party, because they see that party 
seeking to maintain itself by making them odious and by increas- 
ing their calamities and miseries. The solid South aids the 
Democracy, whose broad and liberal principles protect everybody 
and all sections alike. It is the common sense of the people that 
there must be peace, that sectional hate must cease. It is certain 
that the worn-out and gone-by Republican party must go down 
before the Democracy, aided by the solid South and backed up 
by the common sense of the whole people. The Republican 
party was bom, has lived, and is today a sectional party. It 
had its origin in the revolutionary theories and fierce passions 
that engendered the Civil War. It was nurtured in the throes 
of that war, and since the war it has kept itself alive by a quasi 
war carried on by it against the Southern people. This country, 
united, and seeking to promote and to preserve peace and har- 
mony throughout all its borders, has no use for the Republican 
party. That party ought to have died at the close of the war, 
and at the same time that the other parties of kindred origin 



ADDRESSES. 263 

died. Today, the most patriotic thing which the Republican 
party could do, would be to die, and if it be necessary that some 
party should occupy its place, then, let it be born again, and 
when it shall come into its new life let it come with new prin- 
ciples and new ideas adapted to a great and united country, 
and suitable for honest men in all sections to embrace and 
support. 

It is not, however, a matter of special anxiety as to what 
the Republican party may or may not do. Its power in the 
nation is broken. 

I have now, in a general way, noticed the party that threw 
the Democracy out of power in New Hampshire, in 1855, and 
subsequently in the nation, and that still holds dominion in the 
state, and until recently in the nation. The supremacy of this 
party effectually barred all opportunity for Colonel George to 
receive congressional honors and to acquire a national reputation. 

After the Democracy lost power he always remained a private 
citizen, but he lost no opportunity to castigate the ruling party 
by denouncing its heresies, exposing its shortcomings, and 
criticising its bad methods. In the meantime the records of the 
courts bear witness that he was also busy there. He tried a 
large variety and a vast number of causes involving all sorts of 
questions, with infinite tact and great ability. He was much 
employed in legislative hearings before the Legislature of New 
Hampshire, and also before that of Massachusetts, oftentimes 
upon matters of great importance to both public and private 
interests. He had a great deal of experience in railroad litiga- 
tion and other railroad matters. He was permanently engaged 
as counsel, ever after an early period in his professional prac- 
tice, for several important railroads. He was not only familiar 
with the legal rights and liabilities of railroads, but he studied 
and knew the business of railroading in all its various aspects. 
He had a correct apprehension of the mixed responsibilities of 
railroad corporations to the public and their stockholders. He 
knew the sources of railroad prosperity and could discriminate 
accurately between such as were legitimate and such as were 
illegitimate. His judgment was good and much relied on in 
regard to the effect of changes contemplated for the better 



264 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

accommodation of the public and increased profits to the stock- 
holders. He could calculate with great accuracy the advantages 
that would result from any proposed improvement in railway 
, methods. He was keen to discern any change that would save 
railway expense and thereby cheapen railway accommodation to 
the public. At an early day and in advance of most railroad 
men he became the firm advocate of consolidating short railroads 
in the same continuous line. He advocated this improvement 
against strong opposition with all the intense zeal, earnestness 
and pertinacity peculiar to him when his convictions were firmly 
fixed. He advocated it in the interest of the public. He took 
the self-evident ground that one long road created by uniting 
several short roads, could be operated as an entirety, at an ex- 
pense much less than the aggregated expense of running sepa- 
rately the several short roads out of which it was constituted, 
and, further, he took the ground that the saving thus made 
should go to the public in the shape of cheaper fares and freights, 
and not be given to speculators. Colonel George was the im- 
placable foe of all schemes for robbing the public by jobbing 
in railroads or railroad stocks. He always contended that the 
stock in a railroad corporation should be fixed in its amount by 
the cost of construction, and never, under any pretext, 1be 
watered. 

For forty years he was counsel for railroads in every variety 
of financial condition — railroads that were bankrupt, railroads 
that were poor but solvent, and railroads that were rich. He 
supported his family in good style; he educated his children; 
was liberal with friends and hospitable to all, and died leaving 
a good estate which puts his family outside of all want, and yet 
he never speculated in railroads or railroad stocks. The theories 
that he advocated as to what constitutes honest railroad manage- 
ment he carried out in practice. 

His success in the conduct and trial of cases in court arose 
from his habit of ascertaining the facts as they were likely ulti- 
mately to be established, and from his power of discriminating 
accurately, and fixing upon the law that had application thereto, 
and would determine the final disposition of the cause. He was 
sagacious, bold and potential in marshaling his witnesses, and in 



ADDRESSES. 265 

arranging the evidence. He always so discreetly presented his 
evidence to the court and jury that he obtained for it the fuU 
weight to which it was entitled. He never mistook the bearing 
of a piece of testimony and he could measure its force with a 
great deal of certainty and tell about how much it would con- 
tribute towards convincing the tribunal trying the cause. When 
he entered upon a trial he always had his evidence and his law 
in hand, and never hesitated in the presence of the court and 
jury, but pushed ahead promptly and with manifestations of 
perfect confidence that his side was strong and victory sure. He 
could see at a glance the facts that his evidence would prove or 
tend to prove, and the legal points involved. Outside of and 
beyond knowing all the law that his cases required and of which 
his clients had occasion to be advised, I do not think he made a 
practice of encumbering himself with legal learning. Legal 
discrimination and judgment, together with integrity, each in a 
high degree of excellence, are indispensable qualifications for a 
great lawyer or a good judge. 

The eternal principles of truth, justice and right are written 
on the hearts of all good men. Those principles grow with the 
growth and strengthen with age in the minds of every great 
lawyer and good judge. Those principles constitute the only 
legitimate fountain of the law. All cases that are rightly tried 
must be tested by those principles. 

A great lawyer necessarily must be a good man : A good man 
is not necessarily a great lawyer. Mere goodness loaded down 
with vast knowledge of legal abstractions, cases and learning, 
without correct discrimination and clear judgment, is of no 
account in the practice of the law or in service on the bench. A 
man who has been for a long time actively engaged in the prac- 
tice of the law and who always has manifested, potentially and 
promptly, keen discrimination, clear judgment and the posses- 
sion of all the knowledge of the law which his cases required, has 
made a practical demonstration that he is a great lawyer. View- 
ing what Colonel George has done as a lawyer, and considering 
it fairly, it must be conceded that he is entitled to be classed 
with the great lawyers who have given credit and character to 
our state. 



266 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

It now remains for us to consider Colonel George with greater 
particularity as a politician and as a most valiant champion of 
the Democracy. We do this not only for the vindication of his 
memory but for the lesson it affords. We do this in order that 
the heroic courage and devotion with which he and his associates, 
in the dark and gloomy days of continuous defeat, upheld and 
defiantly waved the Democratic flag in the face of overwhelming 
hostile hosts, may inspire the Democracy of today and tomorrow, 
and enable them to realize the value of their faith. 

Colonel George, in his political discussion, always told the 
truth and the whole truth, without respect to persons or parties, 
oftentimes in such caustic terms as to give offence to political 
opponents, and sometimes his remarks were too pungent for 
doubtful Democrats; but to "the tried and true" his voice and 
appeals sounded like a trumpet call, and they were on duty at 
once and the line of battle was speedily formed. In paying our 
last respects to him as Democrats and in considering what he 
did in behalf of our cause, let us not do him injustice by failing 
to characterize truthfully the political heresies that he fought 
all his life, and by failing to give due prominence to the sound 
doctrines which he labored to establish. 

Colonel George first entered upon active political service in the 
campaign of 1847. The defection of John P. Hale from the 
Democratic ranks, in 1845, had enabled the Whigs and Aboli- 
tionists, by a coalition, to capture the government of the State of 
New Hampshire for the year 1846, and to elect Anthony Colby, 
governor, and John P. Hale, United States senator. In the grand 
struggle of 1847 the coalitionists sought to retain what they had 
won and the Democrats to regain what they had lost. The con- 
test was hot and bitter; the ground was fought over inch by 
inch. The country was then involved in the war with Mexico, 
and the then existing Democratic administration of James K. 
Polk was violently assailed and denounced as having uncon- 
stitutionally begun that war by a wanton invasion of Mexican 
soil. The Whigs and Abolitionists openly urged that the Mexi- 
can people "should welcome our invading soldiers with bloody 
hands to hospitable graves." The statesmen and military men 
who were prominent in upholding the war were loaded with 



ADDRESSES. 267 

abuse. The vocabulary of our language was ransacked and all 
its words most expressive of venom and hate put in use. Even 
Zachary Taylor, a plain soldier, of few words, of simple habits, 
of indomitable bravery and unquenchable patriotism, was re- 
viled. He was stigmatized as " a slaveholder who raises men for 
the market and women for the hells of New Orleans, and who 
riots on the ruin of souls for whom the Man of Sorrows died." 
On the other hand the Democracy were awake. The fires of 
patriotism blazed all along their lines and illuminated the whole 
political horizon. Their country was engaged in a war with a 
foreign foe and must be sustained. 

They maintained the justice of the war and upheld the admin- 
istration in its prosecution. They charged their opponents with 
giving aid and comfort to the public enemy, and with being the 
same party, which, under a different name, sympathized with 
Great Britain in the war of 1812, burned blue lights on the coast 
to guide the war-ships of the enemy into our ports, held the 
Hartford Convention, and there plotted revolution and the 
dissolution of the union of the states. 

In this vein, newspapers and stump speakers on one side 
and the other made things lively all over the state. Men went 
to the polls and voted according to their individual convictions, 
prejudices and preferences, without the intimidation, bribery 
and corruption, which, in later times, have caused thoughtful 
men to tremble for the perpetuity of the republic. Young 
George, full of youthful ardor, animated by the aspirations of 
a noble ambition, was prominent throughout the campaign, and 
won distinction. In those days there were strong men in the 
ranks of the Democracy of New Hampshire. Not to speak of 
those of mere local fame, there were veteran politicians, jurists, 
and statesmen, who had won a national reputation. There were 
Levi Woodbury, Franklin Pierce, Charles G. Atherton, Isaac 
Hill, Henry Hubbard and Edmund Burke, who, by their labors 
either in editorial chairs, on the bench, in the cabinet, or in the 
halls of Congress, had acquired a high position among the fore- 
most throughout the length and breadth of the Union. There 
were young men also at the front, and just coming to the front, 
of brilliant promise, like Harry Hibbard, Samuel H. Ayer, and 



268 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

others of kindred type. Colonel George learned his polities 
and formed his political opinions in the school where these men 
were teachers and leaders. He was taught that political opinions 
are to be based upon conviction and are not the legitimate sub- 
ject of change, as circumstances or policy may seem to require. 
He embraced the doctrines of the Democracy because he was 
convinced of their truth. His faith was not hidden under a 
bushel. His voice was ready to defend Democratic principles 
whenever and wheresoever assailed. He believed that the sov- 
ereign power is inherent in the people and that by them only 
can government be rightly ordained; that the Federal Consti- 
tution was ordained by the people and grounded upon conces- 
sions and compromises ; that the parties to such concessions and 
compromises were not only bound by law but common honesty 
faithfully to abide by them; that the federal government had 
the powers given and the states had the powers reserved by the 
Constitution; that states were equal and that individuals were 
equal. 

Colonel George specially loathed and never forgot to denounce 
the canting hypocrisy of the pretences under which the oppo- 
nents of the Democracy ambushed themselves in the darkness of 
oath-bound secrecy. 

Animated by the convictions of his early training and his 
native sense of patriotic duty, he could only look with abhorrence 
upon the cold-blooded wickedness that for mere partisan ends 
trampled under foot the most sacred guarantees of the Constitu- 
tion, by stripping naturalized citizens of their rights and invoking 
the destroying fanaticism of religious intolerance. The enemies 
of the Democracy did not long masquerade under the Know- 
Nothing banner of religious hate and race animosity, but soon 
ceased persecuting the naturalized citizen, and turned their 
efforts for securing political power to violations of the funda- 
mental law, in another direction and upon other victims. They 
sought to compensate the naturalized citizen for the wrongs they 
had done him by inviting him to join them in a revolutionary 
assault on the rights by the Constitution reserved to the states. 
The domestic institutions of the southern states, lawfully exist- 
ing and intimately interwoven with the very network of society 



ADDRESSES. 269 

there, and as old as that society itself, were made the pretext 
for arousing one of the most fanatical and extraordinary crusades 
for political power ever recorded on the pages of history. War 
was declared against the Union and the Constitution because they 
protected the existing institution of slavery the same as they 
protected the other established institutions of the land. The 
Constitution and the Union were stigmatized as the slaveholder's 
constitution, the slaveholder's union. William Lloyd Garrison, 
one of the most powerful newspaper and essay writers of this 
or any other country, annually, on the 4th of July, went through 
the ceremony of burning the Constitution of the United States, 
and at the same time denouncing it "as a covenant with death 
and an agreement with hell." The most accomplished orator of 
his time, Wendell Phillips, with an eloquent tongue, apt in 
persuasion, pathetic in appeal, most fierce in denunciation, was 
a leader — perhaps I ought to say the leader — in this crusade. 
Bold and intrepid, he was in advance of all others, and furnished 
the theories and arguments which lesser enthusiasts retailed 
everywhere. His fiery eloquence, poured forth in impassioned 
denunciations of slavery and the South, of the Union and the 
Constitution, was as fervid and untiring as that of Peter the 
Hermit, while arousing Christendom to rescue the Holy Land 
from infidel hands. He hailed with rapture what he termed the 
first crack in the Union, and rejoiced with exceeding great joy as 
he saw that crack widening and promising a permanent division. 
Far more sensational and scarcely less potential were the extra- 
ordinaiy harangues of Henry Ward Beecher, on the stump, in 
the lecture-room and from the pulpit. 

Horace Greeley, and thousands of other editors, each more 
or less formidable, together with a majority of all the pulpits in 
the country, joined in the general hue and cry. Anti-slavery 
newspapers, poems, and literature of every conceivable character 
swelled the storm that deluged the land. The Constitution and 
the Union were termed ''The bondsman's chains." The flag of 
the country was styled "Hate's polluted rag." 

It was not merely the government and the laws that were to 
be overturned, but the Bible and God himself were to be revolu- 
tionized. A leading anti-slavery orator said "the time has 



270 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

arrived when we need and must have not only an anti-slavery 
Constitution, but also we must have an anti-slavery Bible and an 
anti-slavery God." Such extravagance and threatened violence 
was met in kind by the South. Border ruffianism in Kansas 
and John Brown raids in Virginia soon followed. In those days 
of wrath and fury the Democracy cried aloud for peace. They 
strove to avert the impending storm, to revive a sense of the 
value of the Union and the Constitution, and the inevitable 
calamities that must follow their overthrow. Colonel George, 
then as ever active, aided by his Democratic associates, tried hard 
to stay the torrent and awaken some idea of the danger ahead. 
Their efforts were treated with scorn. They were met by retorts 
such as ' ' let the Union slide, ' ' with epithets ironically given such 
as ' ' Union savers ' ' ; with epithets contemptuously given such as 
"doughfaces" and "minions of the slave power." 

In 1860 a president was elected upon a platform, of which the 
principal plank was a denial of the rights of the South under 
the Constitution, as definitely construed by the Supreme Court 
of the United States. The Southern people, alarmed by the 
threatened revolutionary denial of their rights, stung to madness 
by the constant vituperations of the Northern press, pulpits, and 
politicians, and justified, as they claimed, by the election of a 
president pledged to carry out such denial, committed the 
supreme folly (not to say crime) of attempting to escape the 
consequences of the threatened adverse revolution by becoming 
themselves revolutionists and rebelling against the existing gov- 
ernment, which government, if they had supported and upheld 
it, would have given them full and perfect protection in all 
their rights. 

The terrible war that followed is now over and its causes, 
events and chief actors have passed into history. The impartial 
historian must determine how far the faults on one side and 
on the other contributed to it, and how far the situation itself 
tended towards making the war inevitable. The war ended with 
consequences more fortunate than the most hopeful could have 
anticipated. Freedom was not lost. The soldiers of the North 
and the soldiers of the South fought themselves into mutual 
respect for the valor and honesty of each other. They are 



ADDRESSES. 271 

friends. It is only the stay-at-homes that have sought to per- 
petuate the vindictive passions of the war. Today, however, 
appeals to sectional hostility have ceased to be available factors. 

Colonel George, in his lifetime, always charged, and if living 
now would charge, that the Republican party was fundamentally 
wrong in its origin ; that it was founded upon the revolutionary 
idea of denying to the South a constitutional right; that its 
attainment of power in the nation, pledged to that idea, gave to 
the Southern people the only tangible reason they ever had for 
their madness in seceding and involving the country in civil 
war, and that the Republican party always was an unpatriotic 
and sectional party, seeking its support from the Northern states 
only. I maintain that these charges were true and that history 
must sustain them. Colonel George in uttering these truths in 
behalf of the Democracy, in the midst of great popular excite- 
ment and in defiance of the maledictions of formidable opposi- 
tion, manifested the manly courage and the outspoken fidelity 
to truth that always characterized him in the maintenance of 
the right. 

A great change in the society and in the pursuits of its mem- 
bers has occurred in the South, by reason of the war. In conse- 
quence of that change reliable leaders for the Democracy are 
now looked for in the North and probably for some time to come 
will be looked for there. The proud, high-toned southerner of 
the past is extinct or rapidly becoming extinct. In place of him 
we have a new class of men before unknown in the South, enter- 
ing into the race for the almighty dollar and for material devel- 
opment, with a zeal born of a realizing sense, acquired by their 
recent experiences, of the humiliating impotency of poverty. 

A people, who, in the late rebellion, with few men and little 
money, for a long time withstood vastly superior forces, have 
flung away the weapons of war and have gone to work in agri- 
cultural fields, in manufacturing industries, and in trade, with 
impulses as fiery, courage as devoted, and constancy as persistent 
as that with which they fought at Gettysburg and Antietam. 
They have resolved to become rich. It is certain that this passion 
for wealth thus awakened in the Southern people, stimulated by 
the sure profits that come from developing opulent resources, will 



272 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

grow, and money-getting is about to become the absorbing busi- 
ness of the whole population. 

In the meantime where will be the old-time chivalry of the 
South — men who nurtured "that chastity of honor which felt 
a stain like a wound, ' ' men who scorned to use official influence 
for private advantage, whose pride made them incorruptible? 

Under the new order of things, the white citizens being de- 
voted to the acquisition of wealth, and the negro voters, for the 
most part, being the unresisting victims of intimidation and 
bribery, it is not reasonable to expect that the South hereafter 
will produce George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons, Andrew 
'Jacksons, John C. Calhouns or Henry Clays. Such men are not 
reared in a society controlled by the money-getting element. If 
hereafter that class of men are to direct federal affairs they 
must be produced at the North. Already, with the assent of the 
South, the government of this vast republic is practically under 
direction of the northern Democracy, and there, according to 
the signs of the times, it is likely to remain for an indefinite 
future. We ought to realize the weight of the responsibility 
that rests upon us. We ought to remember that we are American 
citizens and sovereigns of one of the most powerful nations on 
the earth, that there is not in this world any position more grand 
and dignified than the one we occupy. We ought to remember, 
when as sovereigns we appoint our public servants that we must 
be true to ourselves if we would have our public servants true 
to their trusts. In seeking the wisdom needed to guide us in 
this work we cannot do better than to study such examples as the 
life of Colonel George affords. His example illustrates the 
adherence to fundamental principles, the zeal in their mainten- 
ance, the singleness of purpose and the independence that char- 
acterizes the true disciple of the Democratic faith. 

The result of the presidential campaign of 1884 put it in the 
power of the Democracy to give recognition to those who had 
done them faithful service, and Colonel George became a candi- 
date for the naval office at Boston. He was not appointed. No 
complaining murmur escaped his lips. He was silent over his 
disappointment, but we know that he must have felt it keenly 
and deeply. 



ADDRESSES. 278 

"The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear, 
The blood will follow where the knife is driven." 

However, individually, we may have acted in this matter, I 
believe that we all would have been glad if this cup had passed 
from him. "With Spartan firmness he bowed to the inevitable. 

He was a man of "cheerful yesterdays and confident tomor- 
rows," and could no more stay himself from active work than 
the mountain torrent can stop its floods in their course. He 
continued in his lifelong habits of thought and action, and did 
his accustomed work with the old time vigor. If his life and 
strength had been spared until today we should see him in the 
grand presidential struggle now just commenced, where always 
he was wont to be, in the front rank, face to face with the foe, 
steadfastly upholding the cause of the Democracy. He was 
especially well qualified to elucidate the tariff, the great question, 
involved in the present contest. In his early political career 
he took part in the discussion of this question before a former 
generation of voters. It was then determined, after full dis- 
cussion, that paying taxes on goods for the benefit of monopolists 
does not cheapen them to the consumer; that competition is 
the life of business, and that the freer and less hampered men 
are, the better is their chance for success. When the Civil War 
broke out it was and had been for a long time the settled doctrine 
of the country that trade should not be hampered with taxes to 
raise money beyond what was necessary for the support of the 
government. To meet the expenses of the war heavy taxes were 
imposed upon imports with the express understanding that they 
should be reduced accordingly as the call for revenue diminished. 
Those heavy taxes for a long time have been raising money 
largely in excess of the wants of the government, and hoarding 
up the money of the country in the vaults of the treasury of the 
United States, and yet the specious argument and deceiving 
catchwords of the monopolists hitherto have deluded the present 
generation of voters and prevented any reduction of taxes. 
Colonel George, with his scathing logic and vigorous reasoning 
would have been an effective worker in demonstrating to the 
popular understanding the folly of taxing trade merely for the 
purpose of curtailing and prohibiting it. But "the pitcher is 

18 



274 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

broken at the fountain"; his sinewy arm is stiff and cold, his 
voice forever silenced. The wear and tear of life has done its 
work, and Colonel George is now only a name and a memory. 

He kept the field with the old time vigor until the spring of 
1887, when his powers suddenly weakened. He could no longer 
concentrate his intellectual resources at will and throw them 
with lightning-like force upon the subject in hand. He had 
hopelessly fallen into the decrepitude of age. 

"Age must fly concourse, cover in retreat 
Defects in judgment and the will subdue, 

Walk thoughtful on the silent, solmn shore 
Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon." 

His enfeebled faculties were still in even balance and he was 
rational. He was alive to the calls of friendship, and kept up 
his old habits of hospitality. With equanimity he made prepara- 
tion for the last great change which soon came. 

In religion Colonel George was liberal. He did not annoy 
other people with his religious opinions nor ridicule theirs, 
however absurd they might seem to him. He realized that the 
human mind has a circumscribed scope, and he held it to be 
folly for men to contend in regard to questions that can be 
determined only by evidence which lies beyond the limits of their 
powers. But his philosophy was not shallow enough to make him 
an atheist. It went deeper than that. He could see that the 
finite is everywhere bounded by the infinite, and that the Ruler 
of the infinity which surrounds us must have powers as boundless 
as the sway. His philosophy went deep enough to find evidence 
that satisfied him that there was a Being, above all other beings, 
who ruled the universe. 

Colonel George had a long period of active, vigorous life, 
though his years fell short of three score and ten. His season 
of decrepitude was brief. We who have been a^ociated with 
him, and been accustomed to seeing him on the lead, in view of 
the certainty that he only just precedes us in crossing the dark 
river, may well exclaim in the words of another on a different 
occasion: "Go, brave heart, as thou hast been wont to go and 
we will follow thee." He has left his mark on his day and 
generation, and hereafter he will stand forth in tradition and in 



ADDRESSES. 275 

history, a typical man from the indomitable phalanx of the 
Democracy of New Hampshire, and his name and memory will 
remain a bright jewel to adorn the state. 



TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF GEN. GILMAN MARSTON. 

Delivered Before the Grafton and Coos Bar Association at 
THE Annual Meeting at Woodsville, N. H., January 30, 
1891. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

I knew General Marston very well in his lifetime, and had 
considerable intimacy with him, and perhaps it may be reasonably 
expected that I should be able to discuss his character. I was 
asked to say something on the present occasion in reference to 
General Marston 's capacity and character as a legislator, limiting 
what I should say to the consideration of him in that particular. 
It is impracticable to speak in a given particular of a man's 
character without having in mind to a large degree his general 
character. 

I think it is too much the practice in discussing the character- 
istics of a deceased friend to bury his real qualities underneath 
a mass of glittering generalities and fulsome eulogy; in that 
way we lose sight of his identity. When we discuss the character 
of a good and brave man it is a just analysis of his character that 
he deserves, not a mere indiscriminating laudation. 

In speaking of General Martson, my first proposition would be 
that he was a man of integrity, that his love of country was 
stranger than his partisanship, that selfish interests could not 
control him where principle was involved, that no mercenary 
considerations however great could bribe him to forfeit his self- 
respect and become dishonest. 

That he was a man of integrity his fellow citizens, who met 
him daily all his lifetime, know. The bar, before whom he went 
in and out for a period of half a century, know. His clients 
know. The soldiers that served under him knew it. President 
Lincoln and his cabinet knew it. And in fact, although his 
position in the army was not of a very high grade, he was re- 



276 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

peatedly sent for and consulted during the war by the president, 
Mr, Lincoln, and by the secretary of war, Mr. Stanton, in regard 
to the affairs of the army, and he was consulted especially as a 
man upon whose judgment and account of what was going on 
they could rely. His associates in Congress and in the New 
Hampshire Legislature knew his integrity. That love of country 
was stronger than partisanship ; that selfish interests could not 
control him when principle was involved is shown by his action 
throughout his political life. He did not hesitate to speak out 
at all times, and on all occasions, what he thought, however it 
might affect his whole political prospects in the party to which 
he belonged. 

That mercenary considerations could not shake his character 
and make him dishonest is another proposition. I recall a story 
which he told me himself, and which I have heard from other 
sources, and which I do not doubt. During the time he was in 
the military service he was put in command of Point Lookout and 
had charge of a very large number of rebel prisoners. He was 
furnished with rations for the prisoners similar to what was dealt 
out to the soldiers in actual service — hardtack, salt beef, and 
salt pork in large quantities, but the soldiers when doing nothing 
had not much appetite for that sort of food, and so he disposed 
of much of it, and being near the truck gardens of Norfolk, 
where vegetables were very cheap, he bought those for his prison- 
ers, and they grew fat, hearty, and jolly. When he got through 
his term there, he had a large sum of money wich the provisions 
he had sold had brought, over and above what he had bought, 
cost, somewhere between one and two hundred thousand dollars, 
and he went up to Washington to settle his accounts with the 
auditor there, and drew out this money. The auditor said, what 
is that? and he told him. The auditor said, I never heard of any 
such thing as that before in all my experience in settling with 
officers. General Marston might probably have pocketed and 
brought home that large amount of money, and inquiries would 
never have been made. Many men, perhaps, situated in the 
army as he was, would have carried it home, but General Marston 
could not afford to pocket his self-respect and become dishonest 
by taking that money. 



ADDRESSES. 277 

Second, I claim that General Marston was a brave man. His 
courage was not the courage of the unthinking horse that rushes 
blindly into the jaws of death, but his courage was a fixed pur- 
pose that carried him unfalteringly wherever it was his duty to 
go. The Duke of Wellington once saw one of his officers in a 
very dangerous position ; saw him turn pale, then resolutely face 
the danger and march up to his work. The Iron Duke said, 
''That is a brave man, he knows him danger, and faces it." I 
have been told of a circumstance occurring to General Marston. 
I was not told this by him, but by another, — that on one occasion 
he was left in command of some raw recruits, in a portion of 
the field which was very much exposed, and with but imperfectly 
thrown up defenses. The bullets began to whistle around pretty 
lively, and the men began to develop a panicky feeling, and it 
was quite evident that a panic was imminent. At this point 
General Marston walked forward upon the most exposed part of 
the parapet, and taking out his glass deliberately took a view 
around, then walked to the other end of the parapet and took a 
view and then walked back to his original position, and on looking 
around he saw that every man was in his place ready for duty; 
all signs of a panic had entirely disappeared. 

There are those, and some of them among General Marston 's 
very best friends, who, while they concede to him physical cour- 
age, claim that he was lacking in moral courage, and they claim 
that this accounts for his political actions on many occasions, 
and for his falling sometimes under judicial influence in matters 
of legislation. I take the ground, however, that General Marston 
had both physical and moral courage. He opposed unscrupulous 
partisanship inside his own party, and he did not halt in that 
opposition until he had reached the extreme where further oppo- 
sition would rob him of his power to resist evil. Because he did 
not continue the fight until thrown outside his party, they said 
he lacked moral courage. The reason as I interpret it was not 
because he was afraid, but because he did not think it wise. If he 
had longer continued his objections on those occasions he would 
have thrown himself out of position in his party, and his power 
to lead it in right directions would have been lost. General 
Marston 's physical courage did not lead him to expose himself 



278 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

unnecessarily and rashly; he stepped boldly to the front and 
defied the leaden rain and iron hail only when duty called him 
and when it was necessary to inspire his soldiers with confidence 
and steadfastness in the discharge of their duties; he did not 
expose himself when nothing was to be gained by it. He com- 
batted what was wrong in his party, and did not cease until he 
carried his point, or until further opposition became rashness 
and folly, I remember in the Legislature of 1881, when for 
some purpose an opinion was procured from our Supreme Court 
giving a construction of the federal law as to the election of 
United States senators different from what the Senate had settled 
by repeated adjudications. General Marston on that occasion 
broke ground, and was the leader in opposing this attempt to 
over-rule the action of the United States Senate. He fought it, 
and there was no fooling about it either. He defied the opinion 
of the court, and he defied the party that procured it. He car- 
ried his point, and there was no halt until he had carried it. 
I think it may be said truthfully that the General never desisted 
from political warfare until it had reached the point where on 
the whole it was wise to desist. 

And here I will speak more particularly of a third element in 
the character of General Marston — a most essential element in 
statesmanship, and without which no man can be a statesman 
— and that is, a wise discretion that sees accurately the whole 
situation, and in working for desired ends knows how far to go 
in a given direction, and where to stop, — a discretion that keeps 
within the limits of what can be accomplished. I think General 
Marston had this discerning sense in a high degree. It, with his 
sturdy honesty, his courage, and his patriotism, would have 
brought him all the honors of statesmanship if a broad field of 
action had been given him. 

I come now to the particular in which I was asked to speak, 
that is, his character as a legislator, and I can only say that the 
characteristics that I have been mentioning were manifested by 
him here. In the main he had a friendly understanding with 
the judiciary, upon whom the responsibility of interpreting the 
law rests. He had a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the 
various interests of the state, and could judge well as to what 



ADDRESSES. 279 

legislation, if any, was needed. He did good service in keeping 
mischievous and useless legislation off the statute book, but 
when an evil actually existed he readily conceived the appropriate 
remedial legislation. The famous tramp law is a monument of 
his sagacity in this respect. All of you probably call to mind 
the situation of the state at the time of the passage of that 
law. We were literally overrun with tramps; they were every- 
where, in all the streets and in all the houses, and everywhere 
they were annoying everybody, and what to do seemed to be a 
puzzle; nobody seemed to know how to get rid of this tramp 
nuisance, and then General Marston brought forward his tramp 
law, which provided that tramps should be severely punished; 
and as it was brought forward many doubted its efficacy. It was 
suggested that the severity of the punishment would react and 
create a popular sympathy; but the law was enacted, and the 
result was that the tramps disappeared like mist before the 
morning sun; we did not hear of any more tramps. It was 
exactly the legislation needed. 

I do not know as I can make any further suggestion upon 
this particular branch of his character, and in conclusion I think 
it may be said generally of General Marston that whatever posi- 
tions during his long life he was called upon to fill he acted his 
part well, and we have every reason to believe that if he had 
been called upon to fill the highest and most responsible position 
that the people can give he would then have acted his part well. 
We may truly say that he was a brave soldier, a true patriot, 
a wise legislator, a statesman, and above all that he was that 
"noblest work of God," an honest man. 



280 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 



NATHANIEL W. WESTGATE. 

Remarks by Mr. Bingham at the Meeting of the Grafton and 
Coos Bar Association at Woodsville, N. H., January 30, 
1891. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Bar : 

I do not feel that I can speak in regard to Judge Westgate 
as he deserves to be spoken of. My attention was called to 
this matter only recently, and since then my time has been so 
much engaged that I have had very little opportunity to formu- 
late any systematic remarks. When the news came of the death 
of Judge Westgate it perhaps struck me more forcibly than it 
did most of you, for it was the removal of the last landmark 
between the bar of our county as it is and as it was when I first 
knew it. He was the survivor of all the members of the bar of 
Grafton County living at the time I commenced practice. That 
was the year 1846, and at that time Grafton County had many 
strong members in its bar. I do not know but the men of the 
present day are fully equal to the men of that day, but, without 
discussing that question, I will call attention to some of the 
men who were then in the Grafton County bar. First, there 
was Judge Wilcox, of Orford, a distinguished lawyer, well known 
throughout the state, and who since then has been upon the 
bench, distinguished himself there, and passed away. Judge 
Woods, a strong man in the law, and then upon the bench. 
Goodall and Morrison, well known names, doing an important 
and extensive business, and known everywhere in financial and 
legal circles. Harry Hibbard was then in the full bloom' of hisi 
successful career in the law and in politics. Henry A. Bellows, 
then of Littleton, was in the front rank of the bar ; distinguished 
for industry, urbanity and ability, he afterwards as chief justice 
of the state adorned the bench. Joseph Bell had just removed 
from the county and the state, leaving behind him, at Haverhill, 
Charles Thompson, Mr. Felton, and others. At Hanover was 
Mr. Duncan, one of the most accomplished men that ever lived 



ADDRESSES. 281 

in this state or any other, and he was then in full strength and 
had a successful practice; also Mr. Blaisdell was there, with 
kindred accomplishments. At Lebanon was Mr. Blaisdell, senior, 
who passed away before many of you can remember. Going on 
to Enfield, there was Judge Westgate, who was in active practice. 
At Canaan, was Judge Kittredge. They used to call him "Old 
Kit." He was a man of legal and scholarly learning. I think 
I have heard him make some of the most effective arguments 
to the jury and court that I ever heard. Then there was William' 
P. Weeks, who divided with Judge Kittredge the legal practice 
in that vicinity. In the eastern district at Rumney was that able 
and vigorous lawyer, Josiah Quincy, and at Wentworth, J. E. 
Sargent, afterwards for a long time one of the associate justices 
of the Supreme Court and finally chief justice. Then at Plymouth 
was Mr. Thompson, and there were others in that district who 
were strong men. Mr. Westgate was the last representative of 
the bar as it was first known to me, and as it was known to me 
for many years. 

I have seen these men with each other trying cases, and I have 
tried cases myself with them, and they were able men. Judge 
Westgate had a long life; bom in 1801, he died in 1890, in his 
ninetieth year; — ''the days of the righteous are long in the 
land." No untimely frost cut him off; as the ripened com is 
gathered in the harvest time, so has he at the end of his days 
passed to his final rest. 

Human life at the longest it but a span. This idea has been 
repeated in one form and another since the world began, and 
ought always to be ringing in our ears; and yet so much does 
this world, its cares and its troubles, its hopes and its fears, its 
labors and its honors engross our entire being that when one 
of our number is stricken down, it sounds new and startling. 
The more sudden the blow the greater the shock. My memory 
goes back to the time when Ezekiel Webster, brother of Daniel, 
dropped dead in the court house, and the remark of Mr. Sullivan, 
"What shadows we are and what shadows we pursue!" — merely 
the idea I have stated, that has been repeated over and over 
again, yet repeated on that occasion it had a wonderful force 
and struck the people with most startling effect. Not so with 



282 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Judge "Westgate; he died not suddenly, not unexpectedly; lie 
died full of years, and full of honors, yet his life, character and 
death, just the same, open a field for comment by the moralist 
and the philosopher. I think that the words of the inspired 
Psalmist may be most properly quoted and applied to Judge 
Westgate and to his character: "Mark the perfect man, and 
behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." Judge 
Westgate, by his staid deportment, by his just comprehension 
and measurement of what was going on around him, by his sound 
judgment and integrity, demonstrated that he was one of the 
solid men that constitute the pillars of all wholesome society. 
The influence of such men is so quiet and unobtrusive, and under 
their direction the community moves along so orderly, that I 
have often thought their worth was unappreciated. Particularly 
have I thought this to be true of our own state. 

Judge Westgate was born in the town of Plainfield, as I have 
before stated, in the year 1801, on a farm, and he received his 
education at the common schools and academy, and studied law, 
and commenced the practice of law in the town of Enfield, where 
he continued to build up a good character and reputation, and 
he remained there until he was called to Haverhill as register 
of probate, where he has since resided, and where he died. 

In my mind Judge Westgate and N. B. Felton are very closely 
associated. My first knowledge of these men was by reputation, 
and that was as long ago as I was in college, in 1843. I was in 
the habit of going down to the east part of Lebanon, where a 
relative of mine lived, a well-to-do farmer, and a man of sense, 
who had a sharp eye and was a good judge of property and of 
men. I recollect in my visits there he told me of Mr. Felton. 
He said that he had then gone up to Haverhill, but that he used 
to be at Lebanon, and while he was there he was his lawyer, and 
he found he could rely on what he told him. He said he had got 
acquainted with another man then that was his man, down in 
Enfield, and that was Mr. Westgate. He said he had found him 
to be equally reliable, and that when he had occasion to use a 
lawyer he went to Mr, Westgate, and that he was a good man 
and had a large and extensive business. In my judgment the 
town of Haverhill has had in the past very many distinguished 



ADDRESSES. 283 

citizens; citizens distinguished in the law and citizens distin- 
guished in other walks of life, but I am sure that the memory 
of none of them is entitled to or deserves more profound respect 
than the memory of Judge Westgate, and of N. B. Felton. 



HON. WILLIAM SPENCER LADD. 

A Memorial Address Delivered Before the Grafton and Coos 
Bar ASS0CLA.TI0N at Plymouth, N. H., January 29, 1892. 

The everlasting laws of the universe never change. They 
were the same yesterday as today, and will be the same tomorrow 
and forever. "One generation passeth away and another 
cometh. " The billows of the ocean do not succeed each other 
more constantly than the generations of humanity follow one 
another. Apparently changes are going on unceasingly all about 
us; every day brings something new, something different from 
what has been, and yet we know what the wise man has said is 
the truth : ' ' The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, 
and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is 
no new thing under the sun." 

The great reaper. Death, is gathering his harvests, as he has 
gathered them, as he will gather then forevermore. He has just 
cut down a strong man, one of our number, the Hon. William 
S. Ladd. Our esteemed brother has been cut down in the very 
midst of his honors and his usefulness, before he had lived the 
number of days ordinarily allotted to man, and while we were 
anticipating for him long years of life yet to come. 

"Leaves have their time to fall 

And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
And stars to set; but all. 

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death." 

It is our purpose to leave upon our records, a memorial of 
the life and character of our departed friend, brief, frail and 
inadequate though it be. 

William Spencer Ladd was born at Dalton, on the 5th day 
of September, 1830. His ancestors belonged to that old, rugged 



284 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

New England stock who have done so much towards clearing 
away the forests, planting civilization, and rearing those re- 
ligious, political, and educational institutions which have made 
our country what it is today, that old, rugged New England 
stock, who have furnished so many pioneers and statesmen for 
the country at large ; who have supplied every state in the Union 
with pillars and ornaments to uphold and adorn the bar, the 
bench, and the pulpit. There is no prouder ancestry of which 
any man can boast. Of all the powerful and energetic races that 
have found homes in the vast regions now embraced within the 
United States of America, none have made an impress upon the 
character, habits and institutions of our people so broad, deep, 
and lasting as that which has been made by the strong, hardy, 
and progressive race who first planted European civilization 
on the bleak hills and rock-bound coasts of New England. 

Though Judge Ladd came of New England stock, yet New 
Hampshire may well lay exclusive claim to him. Upon a New 
Hampshire farm, within the shadows of her granite hills, he was 
bom and passed his boyhood days. While compelling her reluc- 
tant soil to yield the fruits of the earth, he acquired those habits 
of industry and steady perseverance that so well stood him in 
hand in later years. Breathing her pure air amid the grand 
scenery of her majestic mountains, his mental strength and bodily 
vigor grew together, and he came to manhood with a sound mind 
in a sound body. 

In the midst of these stimulating surroundings his youthful 
ambition was aroused, and he early conceived the idea of gaining 
that honorable distinction which he afterwards attained. 

He received his academical training at New Hampshire schools 
and at her college. He studied law and became an eminent 
practitioner of the law, in the county of his birth. "While yet 
a young man, he was selected from, the bar of Coos County for 
one of the justices of the highest court in the state. In that 
position he gave early exhibition of the breadth and streuigth 
of his grasp of the law. The New Hampshire reports contain 
the monuments that attest his industrious research and the clear, 
comprehensive judgment that made proper application of the 
results of that research. When his judicial career on the bench 



ADDRESSES. 285 

of the courts of New Hampshire terminated, he again became 
an untiring worker at the bar of her courts. He was a legislator 
in her halls of legislation. He sat in her Constitutional Conven- 
tion, a member well equipped with knowledge of what the funda- 
mental law of a state ought to be. He has been the reporter of 
the decisions of her Supreme Court, and in that capacity he has 
done his work most promptly and efficiently. He has been upon 
committees constituted for the purpose of inquiring into the 
evils that afflict the state, and for the purpose of devising whole- 
some legislation to remedy those evils. With his many sided 
capabilities, he has had something to do with almost everything. 
The business community around him called for his services in 
financial matters, and imposed upon him the duties of a bank 
director. Associations for social improvement and for elevating 
the standard of human conduct received his hearty support. 
Whatever he undertook to do, he attended to it with zeal, fidelity 
and efficiency. 

His labors are finished, and New Hampshire furnishes him 
his last resting place. In her bosom "he sleeps the sleep that 
knows no waking." 

The leading facts in the life of Judge Ladd are more or less 
familiar to us all. He had his preparatory course for college at 
the New Hampshire Conference Seminary at Sanbornton Bridge, 
now Tilton, and was graduated at Dartmouth College, in the 
class of 1855. He then entered upon the study of the law, and 
completed the preparatory course for admission to the bar, in 
the office of Messrs. Burns & Fletcher. He was admitted to the 
bar at Lancaster, in the year 1860. He very soon opened an 
office at Colebrook, and the numerous clients that flocked around 
him, without much waiting on his part, made him a busy man. 

He married, in the year 1860, Miss Almira B. Fletcher, a most 
estimable lady, the daughter of Hiram A. Fletcher. She has 
stood by him as a faithful helpmeet, carrying her full share of 
the burdens and responsibilities of married life. They have 
reared a promising family of children, two sons and a daughter. 
Her father, the late Hiram A. Fletcher, was an old and distin- 
guished practitioner of the law, and though he died some time 
ago, yet his name still sounds familiar in the ears of the people 



286 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

of northern New Hampshire. He was actively employed in his 
day, and had a large influence over the business community 
around him. He was noted for his industry, his legal learning, 
and his quaint peculiarities. He is entitled to a prominent place 
in the annals of the Coos bar. 

Judge Ladd soon found that the boundaries of extreme 
northern Hampshire were too narrow for his large and growing 
practice. He yielded, no doubt with reluctance, to the inexorable 
demands of business, and sought a larger sphere of action. He 
must have parted with regret from the fair and fertile fields 
of the far away upper Coos, from its grand and beautiful scenery, 
its picturesque Dixville Notch, and its frowning Monadnock. 

In the year 1867 he left Colebrook and settled at Lancaster, 
the inviting metropolis of northern New Hampshire. Lancaster, 
the "vale in whose bosom the bright waters" of the Connecticut 
and Israel rivers meet. Lancaster, whose valley is so sweet, 
fertile and beautiful that "the bloom of that valley" drew the 
whole original township up the river several miles beyond its 
chartered limits. Lancaster, whose early inhabitants have left 
on its population of today the visible impress of their elevated 
tone and manners. 

At Lancaster Judge Ladd found a congenial home for his 
family and a profitable location for his business. He entered 
into a partnership with our brother Hon. Ossian Ray who has 
just passed away. By his death we lose another pillar and 
ornament of the profession. 

Mr. Ray was then in the full flush of popular favor, in law 
and in politics. He has since been in Congress two or three 
terms, and came out of it with his reputation untarnished. 
Death has overtaken him in the midst of his usefulness and with 
his good standing before the people fully maintained. 

The firm of Ray & Ladd was a strong one, and soon acquired 
a reputation which brought clients in crowds, and business in 
abundance. Important litigations involving large interests were 
committed to their hands, and were conducted so satisfactorily 
that the demand for their services rapidly increased. 

While the firm was thus absorbed in the cares and responsibil- 
ities of their large and growing practice, Mr. Ladd was appointed 



ADDRESSES. 287 

one of the justices of the Supreme Court. He entered upon his 
judicial duties in the year 1870, and by his untiring industry, 
patient research and sound judgment soon demonstrated his 
fitness for the place. He had hardly got fairly installed on the 
bench, before some of its most burdensome tasks were placed 
upon his neophyte shoulders. The reports show that he was 
equal to the work assigned him and that his first efforts in the 
elucidation and solution of difficult problems of the law were 
successful. When this court went out of existence and a new 
court was created by legislative enactment in the year 1874, he 
was appointed one of the justices of the new court. He filled 
that position with increasing honor for two years, and until this 
new court was in its turn abolished, and gave place to still 
another court. Judge Ladd then stepped down and out. Every- 
body knew and acknowledged his untiring industry, strict im- 
partiality, capability and unimpeachable integrity, and yet the 
unreasoning and capricious behests of partisan folly ruled the 
hour. He was refused an appointment as one of the justices of 
this new court, and thus the state was robbed of his invaluable 
services on the bench. 

The unjust dismissal of a man like Judge Ladd from an 
office that he has filled with such personal sacrifice, with great 
ability, with honor to himself and usefulness to the public, may 
give him some slight twinges of unpleasantness, in view of the 
gross ingratitude of such treatment, but there must be ample 
compensation in the relief given him by such a dismissal. He 
is excused from the burdens of official life without any fault or 
shirking on his part. Thenceforth he can pursue happiness in 
his own way and do good untrammeled by the imperious obliga- 
tions of official duty. The poor, cheap demagogues, who by par- 
tisan pretexts instigate the people to dismiss an able judge of 
well-tried purity and uprightness, and substitute in his place 
somebody as poor and cheap as themselves, deserve and will 
receive the execrations and contempt of all coming time. 

Once more having himself and his labors at his own disposal, 
Judge Ladd resumed at his home in Lancaster the practice of 
the law. Old clients and new clients gathered around him in 
large numbers. He entered into a partnership with his brother- 



288 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

in-law, Hon. Everett Fletcher, and up to the close of his life 
the firm of Ladd & Fletcher maintained an extensive and 
profitable business. He was called more or less, either as counsel 
or referee, to go into all or nearly all the counties of the state. 
His services were especially sought after as referee and also as 
advisory counsel. In both those capacities he was well qualified 
to do good work. His industry never flagged. He responded 
with alacrity to all those calls from his fellow citizens which 
every community is always making upon its trusted and valued 
members. 

He was one of the representatives from Lancaster in the 
New Hampshire Legislature of 1883>-84. Here he took a 
prominent part in the debates, and labored diligently and con- 
scientiously to secure such legislation as he believed the public 
necessities demanded. He also represented Lancaster in the 
convention of 1889, for the revision of the State Constitution. 
He was a leading member in that convention and active in its 
debates. He especially took ground against the proposition to 
incorporate in the Constitution a prohibitory liquor law. He 
maintained by unanswerable arguments that such a proposition 
was out of place in the fundamental law; that it was a matter 
within the scope of the police power of the state, and that the 
only appropriate action upon the subject must be had in the 
Legislature by legislative enactment. His arguments, good and 
sound as they were, did not convince that body. An amendment 
embodying the proposition was submitted to the people ; but he 
had better luck with the people. They differed from the conven- 
tion and agreed with him. They rejected the proposed amend- 
ment by a large majority. 

Judge Ladd was appointed one of the members of the forestry 
commission, under the legislative enactments upon that subject 
in the years 1881 and 1883. He took, as I understand, a promi- 
nent part in its labors. That commission, after an extended 
investigation, made a very elaborate report to the Legislature of 
1885, in which the character and extent of our forests, their 
present condition, the treatment they were receiving, and the 
proper mode of preserving them were fully considered. They 
also carefully demonstrated that robbing our lands of the forest 



ADDRESSES. 289 

growth had a deleterious effect upon the soil, the scenery, the 
rain-fall, and the water supply of the state. This report, and 
also a subsequent report of the forestry commission made to the 
Legislature of 1891, ought to be carefully studied, pondered upon 
and acted upon by everybody interested in the welfare of New 
Hampshire and her people. The subject is one of vital impor- 
tance. Every material interest in the state is deeply involved, 
not only as it respects the question of its prosperity, but as it 
respects the question of its very existence. If New Hampshire 
be stripped of her forests, her rivers and lakes will be dried up ; 
the power to drive her manufacturing machinery will be gone; 
her soil will become barren; her land desolate, and her scenery 
no more inviting than is that of the desert of Sahara. 

Judge Ladd was appointed reporter of the decisions of the 
Supreme Court, in the year 1883, and after his appointment a 
marked change in conducting the business of that office was 
apparent. His habitual industry asserted itself here. All 
decisions were promptly reported when made, and the accumu- 
lated arrearages of five previous years have since been published. 

He has been an active member of this Association ; the revised 
declaration of its objects and the revision of its fundamental 
rules and regulations are his work. Our records show that in the 
labors and exercises of the Association he has performed his 
part with efficiency, and set forth upon those records may be 
found his elevated ideal of professional duty. 

There is another remarkable fact that demonstrates beyond a 
doubt the immense capacity of this man for labor. Amid the 
multifarious obligations that called for and received his constant 
attention in almost every conceivable direction, he found time 
which he devoted to legal literature. In aid of the legal pro- 
fession he had prepared a book, and had it nearly ready for 
publication, when the manuscript was destroyed by the fire that 
consumed his office and law library. I am unable to give the 
scope and character of that book, but I have no doubt that the 
loss of any book of that kind which Judge Ladd would be willing 
to issue and endorse with his name, is a serious loss to the 
profession. 

19 



290 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

His Alma Mater conferred upon him, in the year 1878, the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 

He died at his home in Lancaster, on the 19th day of May, 
1891, surrounded by his relatives and friends, and at peace 
with all men. He had been admonished for several months, of 
his insecure hold upon life. I remember meeting him just a 
few days before his death, in the trial of an important cause. 
The sad premonitory indications of dissolution near at hand were 
plainly apparent, and yet he paused not in his work. The final 
summons sounded in his ears while at his post. He looked upon 
the earth for the last time with his hand on the helm. 

Upon a full and just consideration of Judge Ladd's character- 
istics, and upon an impartial review of what he did and what 
he would have done had he been permitted, I am inclined to think 
that his intellectual powers were calculated to do their best work 
on the bench and not at the bar. On the bench he was the right 
man in the right place. His obedience to his convictions, his high 
standard of duty, and his stubborn integrity, made him a power 
wherever he was, but his intellectual powers shone brightest in 
the atmosphere of the bench, in responding to its calls for patient 
research, and for broad and accurate views in applying the law 
to eases as they arise. 

He was placed upon the bench at a comparatively youthful 
age and was permitted to remain there only six years, and yet in 
that short space of time he did much towards giving tone and 
character to our reports. 

He considered and wrote out opinions in many difficult cases 
involving questions of doubt upon which the authorities were 
coniflicting. In these cases and in all other cases where his 
decisions are written out we can see the facility and ability with 
which he did judicial work. By his lucid statement he makes the 
line of his argument plain. The many sources upon which he 
draws for authorities with which to fortify his positions, coupled 
with his powerful reasoning, demonstrate the extent and variety 
of his learning and the vigor of his understanding. His opinions 
are luminous. You can see his steps as he treads along the route 
by which he reaches his conclusions. You realize that his tread 
is the tread of a strong man. Like the ancient lights of the law, 



ADDRESSES. 291 

he so illuminates his pathway that you see it and its surround- 
ings, and the end to which it is tending. You wonder at the 
immensity and accuracy of his research. You feel the weight 
and force of his reasoning. 

Judge Ladd was an important part of the court of which 
Judge Gushing was the chief justice. That court was of short 
duration but had it stood a thousand years it could not have had 
a better established reputation than it had for purity, upright- 
ness, and a just administration of the law. The bar must remem- 
ber with pleasure the dignified simplicity, the enlightened probity 
and the just, impartial and consistent decisions of that court; 
and the bar must see with regret the small consideration given 
by the public mind to constitutional limitations whereby our 
courts, whether good or bad, have been made the mere footballs 
of party politics. 

When Judge Gushing 's court was abolished. Judge Ladd was 
denied further judicial honors, because he decided a question in 
the only way it could be decided without over-turning the funda- 
mental axioms on which our institutions rest. Party leaders 
were thereby displeased, or pretended to be displeased, and by 
the adroit use of virulent catch-words referring to that decision, 
they succeeded in depriving the public of Judge Ladd's services 
on the bench. 

It has always seemed to me that the business of making a 
man's politics the test whether he shall or shall not have a judi- 
cial appointment is a most miserable business. I never could 
conceive how politics, honestly entertained by an honest man, 
learned in the law, who would sooner cut his right hand off than 
pervert the law, could disqualify him for a seat on the b^nch, 
or how a mere partisan qualification could be any qualification 
at all for judicial honors. I am sure that the man who is made 
a judge on account of his partisan qualifications will always turn 
out to be a mere trimmer. In a storm he cannot be relied upon 
to stand by the right for anybody or anything, not even for his 
own side in politics. Here I desire to quote a few words on this 
subject which I have said elsewhere: 

* * A judge, as a judge, has no business with party politics, and 
has no legitimate use for them. He should never be put on or off 
the bench because he is or is not a partisan of a particular stripe. 



292 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

The idea of mixing up a certain amount of political partisanship 
of one kind, with a certain amount of political partisanship of 
another kind, and putting the mixture on the bench and calling 
it an impartial court, would seem, inasmuch as partisanship of 
any kind is out of place there, to be a gross absurdity. I should 
just as soon think that profane swearing is necessary to qualify 
a preacher to give in the pulpit sound gospel preaching, as that 
political partisanship is necessary to qualify a man for a seat 
on the bench. It seems to me that it is just as sensible to claim 
that the pulpit would be all right if it were supplied by a certain 
number of preachers who can curse one way profanely, and a 
certain number who can curse the other way profanely, as it is 
to claim that the court is all right because a part of the judges 
are partisans of one kind and a part of them are partisans of 
another kind. Unless some mischievous muddle is required, or 
somebody is to be humbugged, there cannot be any occasion to 
constitute a court on such a fundamental theory. There is no 
sense or reason in holding that you have built up a good thing 
because you have put two diverse elements in a place where 
neither of them belongs. There is no precedent for it in nature 
or in history and none in poetry unless the decoction prepared 
by Shakespeare's witches in the play of 'Macbeth' be regarded as 
one. The only legitimate questions to be asked in the appoint- 
ment of a judge are: Is he honest? Is he capable?" 

The dismissal of Judge Ladd from the bench, was, to say the 
least, a great mistake. He had demonstrated his preeminent fit- 
ness for the place. The short-sighted partisans who dictated his 
rejection inflicted a great wrong upon the people, upon Repub- 
licans and Democrats alike. But they failed to do him material 
harm. They could cause his dismissal from the bench, but they 
could not stain or obscure the great and spotless reputation he 
had there acquired. They could not efface his opinions from the 
pages of the New Hampshire reports. Those opinions remain 
monuments that attest his industry, learning and ability. Those 
opinions will go down to posterity bearing on their face the 
evidence that entitles his name to be ranked among the sages of 
the law; that entitles his name to be classed with the names of 
Perley, Bell, Woods, Gilchrist, Parker and Richardson. 



ADDRESSES. 293 

The present generation of men in New Hampshire will hold 
the name of Judge Ladd in respectful remembrance. His family, 
his immediate relatives and friends will cherish his memory with 
fondness and pride. His sons, whose known talents give promise 
of compensation to the public for its loss of their father, will 
always see before them their father's example beckoning them 
onward in the path of duty. 

His enduring fame, — his fame that will last when the men of 
today have passed away, — must depend mainly upon what he 
did while on the bench. 

"With us of this association his example, his counsels, his works, 
spread upon our records, remain, but his strong arm no longer 
guides us. He has passed through the dreaded ordeal into the 
unknown beyond. Death has been denominated the King of 
Terrors, and yet the good and brave have always met him with 
equanimity. It is well that we be reconciled to the inevitable. 
The cool philosophy that enables the man, firm of purpose and 
upright in heart, to keep the even tenor of his way amid all the 
ills incident to his earthly pilgrimage will not desert him at its 
close. In the hearts of all such men there will be a response to 
the oft quoted words of the poet Bryant : 

"So live that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not like the quarry slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon; but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

And if in the hour of final dissolution there be also faith in the 
promises of Divine Revelation, and if assurance be felt that 
"though a man die, yet he shall live again," that "this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on 
immortality," then indeed is the great change most welcome. 
He who has an abiding trust in these promises can part from 
the vanities of earth without a pang, and may well exclaim amid 
the agonizing throes of expiring nature, with an exulting sense 
of triumph, "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where 
is thy victory?" 



294 HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 



ORIGIN AND THEORY OF OUR INSTITUTIONS— IM- 
PORTANCE OF A STRICT OBSERVANCE OF CON- 
STITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS. 

Opening Address Before the G-rapton and Coos Bar Associa- 
tion, AT Berlin, N. H., January 26, 1894. 

Gentlemen of the Association: 

We meet today upon the banks of the Androscoggin. We 
hear the hum of business and find ourselves in the midst of a 
teeming population, and thriving industries; in a place, where, 
a little while ago, forests darkened, and no sound was heard, 
save the noise of the rushing waters of the majestic river in our 
front. 

The citizens of Berlin ought to be admonisheS by the fate 
which recently has overtaken other promising towns in New 
Hampshire, that whether they wish it or not, the next Legislature 
may make their town a city. 

Naturally enough in this connection, the reflection comes to us 
that we are citizens of a vast country, bounded on the north by 
the British possessions, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on 
the south by Mexico and its Gulf, and on the west by the Pacific 
Ocean; that within the limits of this grand territory there are 
many immense cities, and a multitude of smaller cities, and 
thousands upon thousands of just such thriving towns as this 
town of Berlin, and that industry, thrift, civilization and prog- 
ress are everywhere manifest. 

We may well thank Almighty God that He has placed us here 
instead of casting our lot among the Turks or the Algerines, or 
anywhere else except within the limits of this free, great, 
glorious and progressive republic. 

Divine Providence has indeed specially favored us by giving 
to us for our home a land where liberty, regulated by law, has 
been planted and made secure. 

We are free to think, to speak, to go or stay, to do or not to 



ADDRESSES. 295 

do, according to our own good pleasure, always remembering 
that we must not trespass on our neighbor. 

It is not my purpose to consider in detail the history of the 
origin, growth, and establishment of our laws, institutions, and 
government, but I will briefly notice the following subjects: 
First, The origin of our laws and institutions. Second, The 
theory on which our institutions are based. Third, The im- 
portance of a strict observance of the constitutional limitations 
upon power. 

The first proposition involves some consideration of our history 
at its beginning. 

Our ancestors emigrated here from the great body of the 
people, the commons of England, who had for centuries waged 
uncompromising resistance to the allied tyranny of King, Noble, 
and Ecclesiastic, and who at last, had secured an equal voice in 
Parliament, and placed the personal rights of the English com- 
moner with impregnable muniments, on a solid foundation. 

The English colonists who planted civilization on these 
American shores, brought from home a love of individual liberty 
and a hatred of tyranny in all its forms. They were familiar 
with the history of the continuous struggle waged by their Saxon 
fathers for the maintenance of the people's rights against the 
system of oppression established by the Norman conqueror, and 
upheld by his successors on the throne. 

They knew the landmarks recorded in that history, the muni- 
ments of freedom, set up along the line of that continuous 
struggle. 

They knew the traditions that told the story of Magna Charta, 
how it was extorted from an unwilling and treacherous sovereign, 
confirmed, from time to time, by bills of rights, until the British 
Constitution as it stands today, was firmly established. They 
brought here a realizing sense of the value of individual liberty, 
with the steadfast purpose that in their new homes freedom 
should be maintained, and that this land should be a land of 
liberty forever. Individual liberty was respected, and through- 
out the colonial period the people's rights, as they had been 
learned in the mother country, were maintained. The govern- 
ment was democracy, all men standing upon equality. When at 



296 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

length, GTreat Britain saw that the industry of our colonial 
fathers was developing means out of which taxes could be wrung, 
her greed prompted her to impose taxes upon them without their 
consent, and to assert the right through her Parliament, to con- 
trol them in all cases whatsoever. Our fathers could not submit 
to such assumptions, made in violation of the sacred principles 
embodied in the Magna Charta, cherished in their daily thoughts 
and interwoven with the very threads of their lives. 

They loved England as their old home. They loved peace and 
were unprepared for war. They sought not independence. They 
only sought to be left unmolested in the enjoyment of the rights 
of freeborn Englishmen. They humbly petitioned and firmly 
remonstrated, but the King and Parliament spurned with the 
same contempt, humble petitions and stern remonstrances. The 
inevitable took place. A new nation was born, and established 
as such, among the nations of the earth, by the swords of men 
whose watchwords were ' ' liberty or death. ' ' When independence 
had been achieved, the victors were confronted by a most difficult 
problem, viz., how to secure the liberty which had been won, 
and perpetuate its enjoyment to their posterity. 

They knew its value. It had cost them dear. In its behalf 
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor had been 
pledged. Their blood and treasure had flowed like water, and 
now, when it was won, they felt that it must be preserved and 
made safe. 

I come now to the consideration of the theoretical basis of 
our institutions. The fundamental theory, on which our institu- 
tions rest, is that the people are the sovereigns and the only 
source from which the powers of government can be legitimately 
derived. Upon this theory our written constitutions, both state 
and federal, in fact, were founded. 

The people in their sovereign capacity, by these written instru- 
ments, created governments to which they delegated powers, 
limited, qualified, and to be exercised in manner set forth in 
those instruments. 

The officials by whom those governments are administered, by 
frequent elections, are made directly subject to popular control, 
and thereby individual rights would be at the mercy of a popular 



ADDRESSES. 297 

majority, but for the guarantees in those written constitutions 
for the protection of life, liberty and property. The people who 
framed and ratified those constitutions, having been trained in 
the school of freedom, knew from experience that the rule of 
the majority, unrestrained by limitations upon power, might be 
more tyrannical than the absolute rule of a single despot. 

The men of the revolution dreaded a recurrence of the evils 
against which they had rebelled. They would trust no one, not 
even themselves, with unlimited power. They revolted because 
the safety of life, liberty, and property was arbitrarily and 
illegally threatened, and having carried their revolt to a success- 
ful result, and having all power in their own hands, they went 
to work deliberately, and limited themselves in its exercise. 
They carefully guarded by written constitutions, against even 
their own arbitrary assaults, the rights of the individual to the 
enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. These constitutions 
illustrate the magnanimity, the far-sighted wisdom, and the 
self-denial of the people who were their framers, and who 
thereby practically restrained themselves against themselves, in 
the interest of individual rights. The purposes sought to be 
accomplished are well set forth in the preamble to the Federal 
Constitution : 

**We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, 
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of America." 

This Constitution created the federal government which was 
organized and put into operation in 1789, and ever since has 
continued in successful operation, and today, in the one hundred 
and fifth year of its age, stands firmer than ever, securing to 
lis all the blessings it was ever expected to secure, and promising 
to endure as long as intelligence and virtue in even a moderate 
degree shall actuate the American people. The wise provisions 
of our state and national constitutions have borne good fruit, 
especially that provision by which the three great powers of gov- 
ernment, viz., the executive, legislative, and judicial powers, are 



298 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

made independent of and checks upon each other. Whenever any- 
right guaranteed by the Constitution is alleged to be infringed 
by legislative encroachment, it becomes the duty of the judiciary 
to hear and to determine, and if they find that the questioned 
act is in conflict with the fundamental law, with the Constitution, 
then they have no alternative, they must adjudge that act void. 
In practice our courts are expected to consider, and they do con- 
sider, the constitutionality of any legislative enactment, when- 
ever the question arises in a litigated case, and they are expected 
to hold, and they do hold, the questioned enactment unconstitu- 
tional, if in fact it is plainly so; but if, upon the other hand, 
they can see that the enactment can be brought fairly within the 
scope of the constitutional powers of the Legislature, then they 
hold it constitutional without any reference to its character in 
other respects. Of the expediency or justice of a law, the Legis- 
lature are the sole judges, and their determination of those 
questions is final. The generally intelligent, upright and 
impartial exposition and application of the laws by all the 
judicatories, both state and federal, has hitherto restrained the 
other departments of government within their proper limitations, 
and has given us a higher degree of security for personal rights 
than what any people elsewhere have ever enjoyed. The judiciary 
originally was designed to be, and in the past history of the 
country has been, the regulator of our complicated governmental 
machinery, and in the future, so long as the people place and 
sustain upon the bench, patriotic men of ability, integrity, and 
firmness, the Constitution will be maintained and individual 
rights be safe. Since the adoption of the Federal Constitution 
there has been more than one crisis when severe strain was 
brought upon it, but it has always outridden the storm. It was 
especially subjected to a terrible strain during the active period 
of the late Civil War. The suspension of the writ of habeas 
corpus, arbitrary arrests, and illegal imprisonments on more 
than one occasion, made us realize that inter arma leges silent, — 
that "amid the clash of arms the law was silent." 

Yet even in the delirious excitement of those days, such parts 
of the country as were not either actually occupied or threatened 
with occupation by hostile armies, were for the most part sub- 



ADDRESSES. 299 

stantially under the protection of the civil laws ; and now when 
we look back upon those troubled times, the wonder is that 
greater outrages and trespasses on individual rights were not 
perpetrated than what actually occurred. 

Upon the suppression of the rebellion and the restoration of 
peace, the Constitution and laws were found in full force. An 
amendment to the Constitution, adopted with formal regularity, 
abolishing slavery, and giving to the negro race the rights and 
privileges of citizenship, was the only substantial change of that 
instrument. 

Having said this much in regard to the theory upon which our 
institutions are based, and having noted somewhat, the manner 
in which that theory has been carried out in practice, I come now 
to the consideration of my third subject, viz., the importance of a 
strict observance of the constitutional limitations upon power. 
In considering this subject, I will first call attention to the 
extraordinary work accomplished by maintaining in successful 
operation, for more than a hundred years, many governments 
under and by virtue of our Federal Constitution. These many 
governments, each operating with its prescribed sphere, and 
independently of one another, are, as it respects certain matters 
of general interest to the whole, one government — e pluribus 
unum. The powers appertaining to government have been so 
wisely distributed between the state and federal governments by 
constitutional limitations, that if we maintain each government 
in the full and effective exercise of its legitimate duties, we 
thereby secure to ourselves liberty, prosperity, and all the 
blessings which good government can bestow. 

The Federal Constitution plainly points out the boundaries 
between state and federal power. Ordained and established 
by the people for the people, the Federal Constitution has 
hitherto been sustained by the people for themselves, and if 
it is to endure it must be sustained in the future in like manner 
as it has been in the past. 

No truer maxim was ever uttered, than that, "eternal vigi- 
lance is the price of liberty." If we seek to preserve our free 
institutions, we must study them, and carefully ascertain their 
vital points, and then with "eternal vigilance" guard those 
points from all assaults. 



300 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Any disturbance of the distribution of political power, as made 
by the Constitution between the states and the federal govern- 
ment, would indeed be trouble in a dangerous quarter. A 
substantial breach of the Constitution in this particular, once 
made, would inevitably be widened with rapidity, and soon with 
a government subverted, liberty itself would be lost. The name 
might remain, but the government, ordained and established 
by the revolutionary fathers, would no longer exist. The 
glorious republic, of which Washington laid the foundation and 
dreamed that he saw in the far off future, towering in 
magnificence, would either be shrouded in the darkness of im- 
perial despotism or be lying prostrate in anarchy, deplorably 
helpless, and the common plunder of all the robbers with which 
mankind is cursed. 

Civil liberty, everywhere throughout our country, howsoever 
bounded, will be safe only so long as the federal government 
is secure in the exercise of its delegated powers, and the states 
are secure in the exercise of their reserved powers, and both 
restrain themselves within their constitutional limits. So well 
adapted is our system of government to the situation, circum- 
stances, and character of our people, that the vast territorial 
extent of our country is not an element of weakness, but, on the 
contrary, it is an element of strength. Indeed I am of the 
opinion that we might safely go further and enlarge our con- 
federacy, by adding to it more states, provided those added 
states shall have a people and institutions similar to our own or 
such as will readily assimilate with our people and our institu- 
tions. Under the representative system, the Federal Union is 
adapted to indefinite extension. Within it, there can be con- 
veniently embraced many states and vast territory. The bond 
of union would not hereby be weakened, but strengthened, and 
dissolution mad* more difficult. 

The few powers delegated to the federal government are of 
such a general character that they can be exercised just as 
efficiently over many states, and over territory extending to 
remote boundaries, as over a few states and a territory circum- 
scribed within narrow limits. Of course, it will be understood 
when I speak of an extension of the Federal Union as adding to 



ADDRESSES. 301 

its strength, I mean an extension over states and territories 
where republican institutions exist, and where the people are 
adapted to their maintenance. 

The powers not delegated to the Federal Union nor prohibited 
to the states are reserved to the states. So that all the powers 
appertaining to government, not specially enumerated in the 
Federal Constitution, as delegated or prohibited, belong to the 
states. 

The powers thus reserved to the states embrace within their 
scope an immense mass of legislation and governmental action 
too great for enumeration. The individual citizen must look 
to his state for the legislation and action that comes home to 
him and protects or restrains him in his daily concerns. He 
must look to the state for the legislation and judicial action that 
punishes crime and protects life, liberty, and property; that 
regulates domestic rights, the descent of property, education, the 
care of the poor, and all those matters and things innumerable, 
the proper regulation of which is indispensible to the well being 
of society. The powers delegated to the Federal Union, though 
few in number, are over matters of vast importance and general 
significance, in which all the states are concerned alike, such as 
the intercourse with foreign nations, the public defence, and the 
regulation of foreign and interstate commerce. The powers 
reserved to the states enable the people of each state through 
their home governments to govern themselves, as it respects all 
things of a local nature or in which the community is immediately 
interested. So that whatever may be the boundaries of the 
Federal Union, the people everywhere will have at their very 
doors a government amply competent to remedy all the wrongs 
and remove all the annoyances that ordinarily disturb the body 
politic. The people of the states can just as conveniently govern 
themselves in a union that is broad in its extent as in one of 
narrow limits. 

The more extensive the Federal Union is made, the more 
formidable is the aspect of power which it presents to foreign 
nations and the less likely it will be to suffer from foreign 
encroachments; and at the same time the prosperity of the 
whole is promoted by the extension" of untrammeled trade 



302 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

and intercourse. The vast extent of the Union at the present 
time and the many states of which it is composed, is a great 
security against sudden and irrational action on the part of 
the federal government, by reason of prejudice or excited 
passions. 

It is not to be expected, and in practice it has not been found, 
that the same delusions have prevailed at the same time through- 
out the whole country. Now that slavery has been abolished, 
the many different states and the many diverse interests that 
are embraced in the federal bond, make it difficult if not im- 
possible, to form a combination of sufficient magnitude to 
threaten seriously the integrity of the Union, 

The difficulty of forming such combinations would be increased 
by adding more states to the Union. Before mischief makers 
can create combinations dangerous to the country, there must 
be dissatisfaction broad and deep. Such dissatisfaction never 
can exist so long as the federal government is administered 
within its proper bounds and the states are left to the enjoyment 
of their reserved rights. It is certain that if we can secure and 
maintain our existing institutions in their legitimate operation, 
liberty will dwell, and prosperity increase throughout aU our 
borders ; the Union will be safe, the country secure from foreign 
aggression, and further additions to our territory of a suitable 
character will add to our blessings and make them more secure. 
The Federal Constitution is a work wonderful in its adaptation 
to the situation and circumstances of the people for whom it 
was established. 

The more it is studied in connection with the objects it was 
designed to accomplish the more apparent becomes the profound 
wisdom and statesmanship of its authors. It has long since 
passed the experimental stage. It has been tested in sunshine 
and in storm, in foreign and domestic war, and still remains 
firm and unshaken, a glorious monument that commemorates 
the self-denial and patriotism of its founders. The past, present, 
and prospective prosperity of the country under the Federal 
Constitution, plainly points out to us our duty, and calls upon 
us to devote our best energies to its future maintenance. 

The result of the late Civil War has demonstrated the fact that 



ADDRESSES. 303 

the powers given the federal government are amply suflScient to 
preserve the integrity of the Union. The tremendous efforts 
necessarily put forth hy the federal government in order to 
suppress the rebellion, to the popular eye made federal power 
very prominent and greatly overshadowed the prestige of the 
states. 

There is no doubt that the war and its residts, temporarily, 
at least, strengthened the political forces that tend towards 
centralization, and weakened the home governments. But dis- 
cerning minds did not fail to see that strengthening the central 
power by aggressions upon the reserved powers of the states 
was taking direct strides toward despotism. The return of peace 
cooled the popular frenzy, and abated the fierce animosities 
engendered by the war. Reason resumed her sway and the 
people resolved that liberty and union under the Constitution, in 
defence of which their blood had flowed, and their treasure been 
spent without stint, should not, after the battle was won, through 
their own folly be lost. 

A conservative feeling began to prevail, and the Supreme 
Court of the United States met the occasion with the dignity and 
firmness becoming the tribunal whose vast responsibilities out- 
weigh those of any other similar tribunal that has ever existed. 
That court expounded the Constitution as its framers designed 
it, as Marshall and the other great luminaries of the law, who 
have adorned the bench, had expounded it. They declared that 
the Union was a union of states with powers reserved to the 
states, and that the preservation of the Union required that the 
states should be maintained in the full exercise of their reserved 
powers. 

Adjudications have been rendered and enforced with the 
approbation of public opinion everywhere, by which all the 
rights guaranteed by the Constitution have been fully vindi- 
cated. 

And thus the Federal Constitution having abided the shock of 
the greatest civil war in the world's history, and having survived 
and emerged from the storm with all its guarantees vindicated, 
I think we may very well consider that our home is in a land 
where the muniments of freedom are steadfast and impregnable. 



304 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

I had intended to speak further and more specially note some 
of the constitutional guarantees of individual rights, such as 
the prohibition of ex post facto laws, retrospective laws, laws 
taking private property for public uses without compensation, 
and other similar guarantees, but this would open a wide field 
for discussion and the time that I can fairly assume to take is 
exhausted. 

I had also intended to say something to the bar by the way 
of suggestion as to their obligations — that they as guardians 
of the law are in duty bound to know the fundamental laws, 
and to be able to expound them not only to their clients, but to 
the people generally. 

This government being a government where the people rule, 
every citizen is called upon to exercise the right of suffrage, and 
is liable to be called upon to do duty as a legislator, or he may 
be called upon to fill any one of the public offices of the country, 
even the highest. Hence, every citizen has occasion to know what 
the Constitution is ; and where shall he get that knowledge except 
it be from the lawyer who advises him as to his private rights, 
and tries his litigated cases? This is also an important and 
prolific subject, but its discussion consumes time and it must be 
dropped. 

Since the last meeting of this association, several of its members 
have paid the great debt to nature. William Heywood, full of 
years and of honors, has passed away. His name will always 
awaken in our hearts emotions of love and respect. Jacob 
Benton, almost an octogenarian, in good health, full of vigor, 
by an untimely accident has been hurried into eternity. He was 
a strong man and has left his mark. We shall not soon forget 
him. 

John Farr, full of years and deservedly honored, has crossed 
the dark valley. Though he came late into our profession, he 
has done honorable and efficient service therein, and leaves a 
good name behind him. 

There are also three other members of the bar, bom within 
the limits of this association, but whose professional practice 
for the most part has been elsewhere, and who have died since 
our last meeting, viz. : 



ADDRESSES. 305 

Robert I. Burbank, a graduate of Dartmouth College of the 
class of 1843, a lawyer and municipal judge in Boston, of good 
standing, and whose age somewhat exceeded three score and 
ten years. 

Charles R. Morrison. His early practice was in the County of 
Grafton. He was a lawyer of ability and of indefatigable 
industry. After a long life of hard work he rests at last. 

William Little. His life falls short of seventy years, but it 
was long enough to do good work in literature as well as the law. 

Appropriate memorial addresses for each of these deceased 
brothers will be delivered at this time, and will go upon our 
records — ^the last tribute of respect that we can pay to their 
memories. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 

Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Grafton and Coos 
Bar Association, in Littleton, N. H., February 14, 1895. 

Gentlemen of the Association: 

If you will now come to order, we will open the exercises. 
The first on the programme is an address from myself. I have 
been in bad health, in fact housed up with sickness for the last 
few days. I have been unable to formulate any landmarks to 
guide me in an extended discourse upon any of the numerous 
topics that might be suitable for consideration on the present 
occasion, and I do not dare, without chart or compass, to launch 
an extemporaneous craft on the wide, open sea of indefinite 
discussion, for fear that I might never see land again. I shall 
therefore content myself with a very few words beyond what may 
be necessary for the discharge of my formal duties. By so 
doing I doubt not I shall oblige you, as well as lighten my own 
burden. 

Gentlemen, I welcome you to the twelfth anniversary of this 
association. I welcome you to all that the occasion affords of 
reminiscence for the past, of festivity and good fellowship for 
the present, and of bright hopes for the future. In so doing I 

20 



306 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

am conscious that I stir up memories which must awaken in 
your bosoms varying and conflicting emotions. 

We may well indulge in feelings of proud satisfaction as we 
look back upon the history of this association, and contemplate 
the work it has done in connection with what it is doing and what 
it promises to do. Already it has done much towards rescuing 
from that oblivion, which fain would bury all alike in forgetful- 
ness, the names and lives of many worthy men who aided in 
laying the foundations and rearing the superstructures of the 
glorious institutions that insure protection to life, liberty and 
property, and guarantee to us perfect freedom to seek our for- 
tunes and pursue happiness along the ways of our choice. This 
association also records the names and doings of the men of our 
own day and generation, memorials to be transmitted to pos- 
terity for its reference and emulation. It has attained an age 
and acquired a stability which promises that it will endure, and 
continue to be an inspiration to wholesome ambition, and that 
those who shall come after us must apprecate its usefulness and 
permanently maintain it. 

Looking upon this association as our own work, our bosoms 
swell with spontaneous emotions of pride as we contemplate 
what it has done, what it is doing, and what it promises to do. 
Like Nebuchadnezzer of old, who gazing on the mighty city of 
Babylon, its lofty walls, majestic palaces, and beautiful struc- 
tures, said: "This is my Babylon. I built it." So we, looking 
at this association, may say, "This is our work. We built it." 
But alas ! the images of those who were once with us and wrought 
with us, and are now gone out from us forever, rise up before 
the mind's eye of each one of us and rebuke us. This work is 
theirs as well as ours. In its institution and maintenance some 
of our brethren, who now sleep their last sleep, were among the 
foremost and the strongest. This association links us to the 
memories of our departed brothers, and we now hold it in trust 
for those who have gone before us, for ourselves, and for those 
who shall come after us. The pride which we have in this work 
is chastened by our sorrow for the lost ones whose memories are 
indissolubly connected with it. It is meet that at the anniver- 
saries of our association we recognize the tie which links us to 



ADDRESSES. 307 

our lost brothers — that we pause for a moment, and drop in 
silence a tear to their memories. Such a tribute is their due 
and instead of marring enjoyment, adds to it, by giving to us a 
keener relish for all that is good, wholesome, and elevating in 
our exercises and festivities. 

This anniversary of our association is in the year of our Lord 
1895, and soon the light of another century will dawn upon the 
world. Probably the most of us will see the light of the twenti- 
eth century, but some of us, particularly some of those the setting 
sun of whose lives has already almost reached the horizon, are 
not likely ever to behold it. Great and wonderful are the changes 
which have been wrought in the nineteenth century. Civiliza- 
tion has traveled apace, scattering enlightenment, comforts, and 
luxuries even, everywhere and to everybody. The common peo- 
ple of today fare more sumptuously than did the wealthy few of 
a hundred years ago. Missionaries have spread Christianity and 
knowledge into the remotest comers of the earth. The darkest 
recesses of darkest Africa have been penetrated, and the hidden 
sources of the Nile, always heretofore eluding the persistent 
search of the explorer, have been discovered. Vast territories 
of land, magnificent fresh water lakes, rivalling our own inland 
seas, have been found within the interior of the African conti- 
nent and for the first time brought to the knowledge of civilized 
man. 

The icy barriers that girdle the poles of the earth have been 
assailed again and again by hardy and daring adventures, but 
the mysterious secrets that lie beyond those barrriers are as yet 
undiscovered. The laws that govern some of the most powerful 
forces of nature have been studied and those forces have been 
untilized in the service of man. Time and space have not been 
annihilated, but they are very far from being the obstacles 
in the way of human progress that they once were. The immense 
power of steam has been subjugated, harnessed, and put under 
the yoke, and by it huge and ponderous freights and innumer- 
able passengers are transported by sea and by land over and 
around the world. The subtle but terrible power of electricity 
is yet only imperfectly subdued. Enough, however, has been 
demonstrated to make it certain that the attainment on the part 



308 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

of man of a deeper and more accurate knowledge of the occult 
laws that govern this extraordinary agent may enable him to 
utilize it as he has utilized steam. The inquiry as to the uses to 
which electricity may be put opens up a vast field for speculation ; 
but it is idle to predict what may or may not be, when man 
bestrides the forked lightning and rides it as the obedient horse 
is ridden. The boldest dreamer would hardly trust his imagina- 
tion to fashion what may be the result of such a conquest. 

We know that knowledge is power. What may not a man do 
if he knows how? If men fully knew all the laws of nature 
and of the universe would they not be gods ? But, alas ! the 
greatest truth that the wisest of men have discovered after having 
spent their lives and exhausted their powers in search of knowl- 
edge, is, that it was but little they knew, while the great ocean 
of truth lay beyond their grasp unexplored. When humanity 
has reached the goal that marks its end, what will be that end? 
When the earth shall cease to be inhabited by man whither will 
he have gone ? Will he have ascended to a higher sphere to dwell 
nearer the Deity, or will he have fallen back and have been lost 
in the original chaos out of which creation emerged ? There are 
grounds for the hope that the ultimate destiny of man is a 
position higher and better than the one he now enjoys. It is 
certain that he is a progressive being. He learns. He is always 
learning. When he acquires knowledge it is wonderful what 
the fruits of that knowledge are. When he learns something 
that heretofore has been known to Omniscience alone, he makes 
progress corresponding to such learning towards the Godlike. 

Man has learned a little from the great storehouse of nature's 
truths. He is still learning and we cannot discern the limit 
where he will cease to learn. Birds transport themselves through 
the air, and it follows that man might transport freight and 
passengers through the ethereal element around us, if he knew 
enough to construct machinery which would operate in accord- 
ance with the laws that enable the birds to fly. Let progress be 
made for the next century in the same ratio that it has been 
made for the last century, and could we now behold the everyday 
transactions of one hundred years hence, how inconceivably 
strange and wonderful to us they must appear. Perhaps the 



ADDRESSES. 309 

traveler may then take the wings of the morning and fly to the 
uttermost parts of the earth, or he may take the modes of con- 
veyance that shall then be in use on the land and the sea and 
be carried with the speed of lightning across oceans and 
continents. 

The history of the world shows, however, that the march of 
human progress has not been always forward on a straight line. 
It has halted, been stationary, retrograded, and zigzagged before 
resuming a forward course. 

If the present progressive movement of civilization should be 
arrested and it should come to a standstill in the next century, 
or should it zigzag or retrograde even before resuming an onward 
course, that would be in accordance with what has happened in 
the past. In our anticipations as to the future we have no guide 
except the past, and we cannot feel assured that the twentieth 
century will close upon a world more enlightened than is the 
world of today. Indeed when we contrast the darkness of the 
Middle Ages with the brilliant light of civilization that illumi- 
nated the world during the preceding period of Grecian and 
Roman supremacy, we must painfully realize that there may be 
a similar contrast between the next century and the present 
time, and that one hundred years hence barbarism may brood 
over lands, where now with earnest zeal the arts and sciences 
are generally and successfully cultivated. At this very time 
there are clouds just above the far-off eastern horizon, no bigger 
than a man's hand, that may be the beginning of what shall 
grow into a mighty cyclone, which shall sweep over the earth 
and arrest the world's progress in all that elevates and improves 
mankind. Japan, yesterday, was inhabited by barbarians only, 
who, secluded within their island home, were unknown to the 
outside world. All at once they have developed a wonderful 
albility and energy; insomuch that the people of all nations are 
gazing at them with astonishment. Very suddenly, and almost 
by intuition, they seem to have mastered not only the art of war 
but the industrial arts of peace, as practiced by those nations 
furthest advanced in modem warfare and industry. Japan 
with disciplined battalions is now waging successful war against 
its neighbor, China, the oldest and most populous of nations. 



310 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

China has an authentic history of a national existence, dating 
back more than four thousand years. At an early period she 
attained a sort of semi-civilization, and has since stubbornly 
maintained it at that stage without any apparent falling back 
or further progress. Her people, until recently, have been shut 
off from all intercourse with the rest of mankind and as a con- 
sequence their habits and traits of character, unaffected by 
foreign influence, have been hardened and strengthened by 
transmission from generation to generation for thousands of 
years. They have carried the science of multiplying human 
beings and maintaining them in large numbers in vigorous health 
on limited space at small expense far in advance of any other 
people. A dozen Chinamen will breathe comfortably and supply 
themselves amply with food where one European would suffocate 
for want of wholesome air and starve from inability to supply 
himself with food. Chinese labor is far the cheapest labor in the 
world, and China can spare millions of her laborers every year 
and never make any perceptible diminution of her population. 
The wages on which a Chinese laborer will work and thrive will 
starve any other laborer. Our experience in the United States 
has taught us that if we allow fair competition here the Chinese 
laborer will compel all other laborers to leave the country or go 
into pauperism and starvation. Our government has recognized 
the fact and to protect its people has excluded, contrary to its 
hitherto settled policy in reference to foreign nations, the 
Chinese emigrant from our shores. The present war between 
China and Japan is likely to terminate either in conquest or a 
treaty that will unite the two countries in some permanent 
alliance under the leadership of Japan. The last vestiges of the 
wall that shut off the Celestial Empire from the outside world 
will then disappear and then a people that can march further 
in a given space of time and endure privation longer than any 
other people in the world will be trained in the art of war. 
Armies will be organized, equipped, and disciplined, navies will 
be built and material of war prepared in accordance with the 
latest improvements of modem invention. Cheap labor under 
skilful direction will flood the markets of the world from Chinese 
and Japanese factories with all known manufactured products. 



ADDRESSES. 311 

The unoccupied places of the earth will be sought out and 
crowded with Japanese and Chinese colonists. 

When diverse populations meet and crowd upon each other it 
is the fittest that will survive, and if there be equal courage and 
intelligence it is the most enduring that will survive. When 
opposing armies equally equipped and disciplined under com- 
petent leaders meet, the most numerous host is likely to prevail. 
When nations or individuals compete in manufacturing indus- 
tries the one that manufactures a good article at the least cost 
will get, if the contest be fought out to the bitter end, a monopoly 
of the business. 

It is immaterial so far as it may affect the civilization of the 
future, whether China and Japan shall be victorious over the 
outside world in the actual clash of armed forces, or in an 
industrial war. In either event, the light now shining and 
illuminating the world, if not extinguished, would be deeply 
shaded by the controlling influence of the semi-barbarism of 
China and Japan. It would be in accordance with the history 
of the past, if in the future armed and disciplined hordes in 
countless numbers should issue forth under the leadership of a 
second Genghis Khan, Timour or Nadir Shah from the swarming 
millions of eastern Asia, and, driving everything before them, 
overrun and desolate western Asia and Europe. It would be in 
accordance with our experience if the cheap labor of China 
directed by Japanese energy and brain power should prevail in 
an industrial war wdth the more costly labor of other countries. 

The inferences to be drawn from the past and the prophetic 
shadows that existing phenomena cast on the future, when con- 
sidered together, afford no satisfactory evidence as to the char- 
acter of the events which the twentieth century will bring forth. 
Whether progress on the present lines is to be continued and the 
world one hundred years from now is to be illuminated with a 
light of civilization brilliant beyond our conception, or whether 
then the earth will be shaded by a semi-barbarism or still more 
deeply obscured by a renewal of the dark ages, is something 
that we of today wot not of. 



312 HARRY BINQHAM MEMORIAL. 



THE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE UNITED 
STATES IN RESPECT TO THE INTERNATIONAL RE- 
LATIONS OF THE LESSER REPUBLICS OF 
AMERICA AND THE GREAT POWERS OF EUROPE. 

An Address Delivered Before Marshal Sanders Post, No. 48, 
G. A. R., IN THE Town Hall, Littleton, N. H., December 
26, 1895, on the Occasion of the Presentation of a 
Memorial Record Volume to This Post. 

Gentlemen of Marshal Sanders Post, No. 48 : 

Your service at a critical period of American history is the 
occasion of this meeting. I am here to present to you a blank 
book, in which you may record your names and the names of 
your associates, now deceased, with appropriate remarks in each 
case. The connection between those services and the salvation of 
our great republic, at a time when its very existence was im- 
periled, furnishes me fit opportunity, not only for retrospection, 
but for speculation as to the future, and for consideration as 
to present duty. I will not stop to dwell upon the dire neces- 
sities of the country and the impending ruin that threatened 
it in the doubtful hour when you donned the soldier's garb and 
enlisited under its banner. A grateful people, whom your strong 
arms succored in the hour of need, have remembered you, and 
are remembering you now. Your work was well done. Peace 
came, and it came to stay. The warring states were reunited in 
a Union which has grown so strong that we might today safely 
defy all the world to break it. Out of feeble, disunited, and 
scattered colonies, the wisdom of our fathers laid the foundation 
of our republic, and in it made liberty secure by constitutional 
limitations upon power. This work of our fathers, the patriotism 
of our people has nurtured and sustained, and through the favor 
of Divine Providence we have grown into a great nation, wherein 
free institutions are firmly established. Upon us, the people of 
the United States, rests the responsibility of directing the ad- 



ADDRESSES. 313 

ministration of the government. It is our duty to look after our 
rulers (who are our servants) and to see that they act honestly 
and wisely in respect to affairs at home and affairs abroad. 

In view of the fact that our republic is the great republic of 
the world, and has a government and institutions that are free, 
and guarded by safe muniments, and is today, as I maintain, 
the strongest government on earth, I propose to consider espec- 
ially the protection which we owe to the lesser republics of 
America, and the policy we ought to pursue in our dealings 
with the great powers of Europe. 

My theme will be, "The Rights and Responsibilities of the 
United States in Respect to the International Relations of the 
Lesser Republics of America and the Great Powers of Europe." 

All the world have been spectators of the origin and growth 
of our people, and during the entire period of the experimental 
stage of our national existence, our theories in regard to the 
equality of all men and the sovereignty of the people, were 
regarded by our foes with derision and contempt, and by our 
friends as too good to be ever practically realized. Our govern- 
ment and institutions, based on these theories, were considered 
by the philosophers and statesmen of the old world, as resting 
on the impracticable ideas of dreamy enthusiasts, as of little 
importance, and as sure, on the occurrence of the first popular 
commotion, to be utterly demolished. Time passed on, and the re- 
pubKc of small beginnings, tested by many trying ordeals, grew 
stronger, and the prophets of evil spoke less frequently and with 
greater caution. At length the final ordeal came, and the strength 
of our government and institutions was tested by the throes and 
convulsions of a civil war, in magnitude without precedent in 
ancient or modern history. That ordeal was passed triumphantly 
and the strength of our government fully established. The 
spectacle afforded by our tremendous Civil War, together with its 
result, was an object lesson for all the nations of the earth. 
They saw the immense armies we marshalled, the great battles 
we fought, rivalling the armies and battles of Napoleon's wars. 
They beheld the maintenance of successive campaigns on this 
vast scale, while the men, supplies, money, munitions of war 
necessary for the support of all the armies on both sides, were 



314 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

drawn from the resources of the United States alone. They 
beheld American invention revolutionizing naval construction 
the world over, causing the then existing navies to become useless, 
and limiting naval warfare to iron-clad vessels. They beheld 
such improvements in artillery and in death-dealing machinery 
of every description, either made or suggested, as to awaken 
competition among nations in the art of destruction, and to 
cause progress to be made therein so far that now war threatens 
a^bsolute annihilation to all combatants. 

The termination of this extraordinary exhibition of warlike 
strength, skill and invention, was the settlement of the con- 
troversy, the removal or adjustment of all matters of difference, 
and the union of the contending forces under one flag. A Union 
that will endure, a flag that is beloved at home and must be 
respected abroad. Devotion to the Union and to the flag is the 
common sentiment of our people everywhere. Our fellow citi- 
zens, whether dwelling on the Pacific or Atlantic coast, on the 
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, or in the forests of Maine, all 
alike feel their bosoms thrill with patriotic devotion to the great 
republic. War is always to be avoided, if it can be with honor, 
but if, in the providence of God, war should come, there can be 
no doubt that the united forces of our whole country would 
promptly rally in its defense, and with unyielding fortitude and 
valor maintain its cause. Our late Civil War, ending as it did, 
demonstrated to ourselves and to all the world, that we are a 
nation which must be reckoned among the great powers of the 
earth. This position puts a responsibility upon us which we 
cannot avoid. Momentous consequences, fraught with either 
weal or woe, must result from what we do or refrain to do. 
It is incumbent upon us to act in a broad and liberal spirit, and 
with such consideration and wisdom as will best promote the 
welfare, not only of ourselves, but of all mankind. We should 
have a foreign policy, with definite ends in view, and we should 
steadily labor in all legitimate ways to secure those ends. If 
we speak in one voice today and in another voice tomorrow, the 
influence we ought to exert is not felt. Our own interests, and 
the interests of those who seek and are entitled to our protec- 
tion, are sure to suffer. If we would be respected abroad we 



ADDRESSES. 315 

must act wisely and carry a steady hand. "We must speak 
language comporting with our standing as a nation among 
nations. Our government must always be ready to vindicate 
the rights of American citizens, and to cause them to be every- 
where respected. The maintenance of our own peculiar institu- 
tions, as against antagonistic institutions, is subserved by up- 
holding in neighboring countries, institutions kindred with our 
own. Our government was the first independent government 
established by civilized man in the western hemisphere, and is 
republican. Its form has been the model that has guided the 
formation of all the other governments on this half of the globe. 
Monarchies and despotisms varying in form are the governments 
that control, with a few exceptions, the eastern hemisphere. Our 
position as a first class power, demonstrated and acknowledged, 
entitles us to take part and be heard in making those general 
arrangements which the welfare of the world requires, and which 
to be effectual must be approved and upheld by the controlling 
powers of the earth. Our neighbors are sister republics. Their 
maintenance and well being as such will make our own free 
institutions more secure. Having chosen our form of govern- 
ment as the model of their governments, as against outside inter- 
ference seeking to force upon them monarchies or despotisms, 
they are entitled to our countenance and support. The fact that 
our republic is the great republic of the world, and that its arm 
is strong, imposes upon us the moral obligation to shield and 
protect all lesser republics so far as it is necessary in order 
to secure for them the enjoyment of the institutions and govern- 
ment of their choice. The additional fact that all the govern- 
ments on the western continent are republican, imposes the 
further duty upon us to inquire what arrangements in reference 
to the western continent, as it respects the other parts of the 
world, does its welfare demand, and to use all legitimate meas- 
ures to have such arrangements made and carried out. The 
dominion of European powers over any portion of the western 
hemisphere causes entanglements, is a constant source of 
annoyance, and a clog to progress therein. Controversies are 
constantly being raised by one or the other of the European 
powers either against ourselves or some of the other American 



816 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

republics. It is about boundaries, fishing rights, sealing rights, 
shore rights, and it would be hard to name anything about 
which such a controversy might not arise. 

A gold bearing region has been discovered in Venezuela, and 
Great Britain claims it is within the boundaries of her dominion. 
This contention has raised a first class controversy. Our gov- 
ernment is properly taking the ground that, according to its 
established policy, the gold bearing region, if within the proper 
boundaries of Venezuela, cannot be taken from Venezuela, and 
that Great Britain, under a pretense of fixing a boundary, must 
not encroach upon the territory of any of the countries upon 
this continent, or plant new colonies upon it. 

Gold having been found in Alaska, it is said that Great Britain 
is about to start a controversy in which she will claim that the 
newly discovered gold there has been found within the limits of 
her dominion. 

England maintains impregnable fortifications at Halifax, 
Bermuda, Esquimault, and various other places on the Atlantic 
and Pacific coasts of America as naval stations, from whence she 
can send, on a moment's notice, sufficient force to bombard and 
burn our seaport cities or like cities of any of our sister repub- 
lics. It is certainly not pleasant for us or for any other 
America republic to realize that these fortifications that darken 
all the coasts of America are stations for the colossal navies of 
Great Britain, and that iron-clad ships, armed with aU the 
modem implements of swift destruction, may issue from those 
stations and, within twenty-four hours after orders received, 
assail and destroy the seaports of America. And it is especially 
unpleasant and embarrassing for us and our sister republics to 
be compelled to hold debates with Great Britain for the settle- 
ment of these constantly recurring controversies while she stands 
with her arm of power uplifted ready to strike us or them on 
the instant at a vital point. 

Spain, having given up her once extended possessions on the 
American continent, now claims dominion in the west- 
ern hemisphere only over the islands of Cuba and Porto 
Rico. The past history of Cuba, and the desperate revolutionary 
struggle now going on there, sufficiently demonstrate that the 



ADDRESSES. 317 

sooner Cuba is relieved from Spanish domination, the better 
it will be for her, and that it would have been better still for 
her if she had been thus relieved long ago. Cuba, the largest 
and most beautiful of all the West Indian Islands, capable of 
immense development and of almost unlimited production, has 
been ground down for years and years by a tyrannous oppression 
and extortion of the most diabolical character. Her suffering 
people, deluded by false promises, have lived on from one wrong 
to another, feeling all the while the tyrant's grip clinching 
tighter and tighter until at length they have arisen in sheer 
despair with the determination that they will perish or be free. 

We cannot deny the people of this magnificent isle that lies 
at our very door our most profound sympathy in their present 
great struggle for liberty. Nor can we justify ourselves in with- 
holding from them our countenance and support so far as we can 
render the same without violating international law or treaty 
obligations. There can be no doubt that if Spain would allow 
Cuba and Porto Rico to be free and release forever aU claim to 
dominion over any portion of the western hemisphere, she would 
thereby greatly promote the welfare of that hemisphere, and 
do an act which all the world would approve. Spain has been 
compelled by the force of arms to acknowledge the independence 
of all the splendid possessions she once held upon continental 
America. She has not voluntarily given freedom to any of her 
American colonies. She has done so only upon compulsion and 
after long, bloody, and desolating wars. 

Russia has furnished us and the world a different example. 
Her extensive American territory of Alaska and numerous 
neighboring islands from which she was deriving a rich revenue 
in furs and by sealing and fishing, were voluntarily relinquished 
to the United States upon very reasonable terms. We bought of 
Russia upwards of half a million square miles of territory for 
the sum of $7,200,000, a territory as large or larger than 
Germany, as she is now bounded, added to France, Great Britain 
and Ireland. 

Through it flows the great river Yukon, rivaling the Mis- 
si^ippi in the magnitude of its waters. Other rivers of less 
size but of importance flow within the bounds of this territory. 



318 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Alaska, though situated in a high northern latitude, has a much 
warmer climate than the climate of the territory in the same 
latitude on the Atlantic coast ; and its extensive, prolific whaling 
and fishing grounds, its rivers abounding in salmon, its seals, 
its fur bearing animals, its immense forests, capable of furnish- 
ing an inexhaustible lumber supply, and its mineral deposits 
promising to be of value though undeveloped, demonstrate that 
the purchase from Russia of Alaska, whatever be its character 
for agricultural purposes, is in fact an important and valuable 
acquisition. We are undoubtedly indebted for the cession of 
Alaska to the friendship which Russia from an early day has 
entertained for the United States, to her recognition of the 
United States as the leading American power, and to her con- 
viction that European domination on the American continent 
ought to cease. No European power could have obtained Alaska 
from Russia on any terms. The sale of Alaska was a concession 
to us and the other American republics by Russia that in her 
opinion we and they ought to control the destinies of the Ameri- 
can continent. At critical periods in our history Russia has 
given unmistakable evidence that she was really our friend. 
During the doubtful period of our great Civil War, while the 
issue was hidden in the mists of the future, the governments 
of both France and England openly manifested their desire that 
the great American republic should be broken up and that 
discordant and belligerent states might take its place. Not so 
with Russia; she openly demonstrated by word and deed her 
desire that the American Union should remain intact and that 
the hopes of those who laid its foundations might be fulfilled. 
We hear much, generally from sources not friendly to Russia, 
about the knout, banishment to Siberia, the despotic rule of the 
czar, and the cruel severities practised on offenders. To this it 
may be replied, truthfully, that the vast empire of Russia, 
embracing within its limits people of diverse races, of many 
nationalities in all stages of civilization between barbarism and 
a high degree of social advancement, can be governed effectually 
only by a steady, strong hand that corrects the wicked and the 
stubborn and overawes the wild, unruly savage by punishments 
which are certain and severe. 



ADDRESSES. 319 

The reign of Peter the Great, which terminated in the year 
1725, marks the period when the foundations of Russian power 
were laid. Since that time Russia has made rapid strides towards 
national greatness and must now be reckoned as a first class 
power, notwithstanding that her people have been shut out from 
the Mediterranean Sea, and consequently, by reason of imperfect 
communication with the rest of the world, been deprived of the 
opportunity to acquire the wealth, civilization, and refinement 
which a broad, open highway for commerce and intercourse with 
other nations would have given. It is not the fault of Russia 
that she has not today a foothold on the Mediterranean Sea. It 
is not the fault of Russia that the Turk rules at Constantinople 
and tyrannizes over the land where Christianity had its origin, 
and where Christ and his apostles were born, lived and performed 
their sacred missions. Nor is it her fault that today ignorant, 
bigoted, Moslem fanatics are plundering and burning the houses, 
villages and cities of the Armenian Christians and murdering 
without discrimination helpless men, women and children. 
Almost two centuries ago Peter the Great, whose memory is as 
dear to Russia as the memory of Washington is to us, left his 
example, his teachings, and his maxims of government to his 
countrymen, a legacy which they have treasured up in their 
hearts and by which they have been guided in counsel and 
action. Ever since the reign of Peter the Great, every Russian, 
on whose heart the traditions and patriotic impulses of his people 
had a hold, has dreamed of taking Constantinople and per- 
manently planting the standard of his country on the shores of 
the Bosphorus, of driving the infidel Turk out of Europe, out 
of the Holy Land, and away from the primitive seats of Chris- 
tianity, back whence he came, into the recesses of remote Asia; 
of liberating the oppressed and persecuted Christians of the 
land that was once the seat of the Roman Empire of the East; 
of restoring to their rightful worshippers those splendid Chris- 
tian churches that the Turkish invader has converted into 
Mohammedan mosques, and of opening up a way for the Chris- 
tian pilgrims to visit without molestation the places that were 
made sacred by having been the theatre where Christ performed 
his labors and his miracles and had his trial, condemnation, cruci- 
fixion, burial, resurrection and ascension. 



320 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

The fact that the places, sanctified and holy in Christian eyes, 
were profaned and sacriligiously trampled under foot by impious 
intruders, no doubt fired the heart and nerved the arm of the 
Ru^ian in his battles with the Turk, There is no doubt that long 
ago the Turk would have been repressed and that the millions 
of Christians, whom for the last century he has subjected to 
continuous persecutions, slaughter, and starvation, would have 
been restored to religious freedom by Russia if the great power 
which boasts of its philanthropy, rules the seas, has control on 
the four quarters of the globe and on the isles of the ocean, and 
brags that the sun never sets on its dominion, had not inter- 
fered. In 1858 the czar, as the protector of the Greek Church, 
and by treaty obligated to secure to the Christians within the 
Turkish dominions the enjoyment of their religion, having 
exhausted remonstrance with the sultan, and receiving from 
him a definite refusal to cease persecuting and slaughtering 
Christians, and to observe treaty stipulations, for these reasons, 
moved the Russian armies down upon the Turkish frontiers, and 
at the same time announced to the world the objects of the 
movement. England thought she could see that this movement 
threatened the loss of her immense trade in the Mediterranean 
and her great influence in the east ; that the overthrow of Turkish 
power or its subordination to Russian control, would fully open 
up both the Black and Mediterranean seas to the use of Russian 
navies and Russian commerce, and perhaps ultimately make 
Russia a controlling power on both those seas. 

England cannot now, and never could, tolerate the idea of 
losing anywhere her monopoly of trade, or of relinquishing her 
naval control over the waters of any sea. She has accumulated 
vast wealth and is today rapidly accumulating more by her 
monopoly of the commerce of the world. She has money enough, 
it is said, to buy every foot of land on the globe and pay for it 
at the valuation now given it by the various countries of the world 
respectively. 

Some of the greatest statesmen of the world have said that 
the United States is the only country that could seriously com- 
pete with Great Britain for the commerce of the world, and 
that she might do it by abolishing her prohibitory tariff and 



ADDRESSES. 321 

"her absurd navigation laws." When, in 1853, the armies of 
Russia occupied the principalities and were moving towards 
Turkey proper with the avowed object of protecting the Chris- 
tians therein, England became so much alarmed in regard to her 
control over the Mediterranean that she proclaimed throughout 
all Europe, not the fact which was really troubling her, but she 
asserted that the balance of power between the several European 
countries was about to be destroyed; that unless a general rally 
was made in behalf of the Turk all Europe would fall under 
Muscovite control. The appeal was effectual. France, Austria, 
Prussia, and Sardinia joined with England in a combined effort 
to maintain the Moslem Turk in control of the Christian landa 
that he had subjugated, with unrestricted power to persecute 
and butcher therein at his pleasure the followers of the cross. 
A strange spectacle was presented — the Christendom of the 
nineteenth century inaugurating a crusade of a character the 
exact reverse of the crusades inaugurated by the Christendom 
of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In one case 
vast armies were precipitated by the Christians nations of west- 
em Europe upon the east to maintain Moslem power over the 
sacred places and over the lives and liberties of Christians; in 
the other ease warriors from those same western nations, devoted 
to the maintenance of the cross, continued for three centuries 
in great masses, host succeeding host, like successive waves on 
the ocean, to be hurled on the east and on the Moslem intruder 
who had thrust himself into Christian lands, profaned the sacred 
places, and denied to the inhabitants thereof the right to worship 
God according to the tenets of their holy religion, 

England, having determined in 1853 to maintain the Turkish 
empire in the full exercise of all its powers, undertook to accom- 
plish that object by assailing and crippling Russia. Accordingly 
England with her allies assailed the Crimea as the most vital 
spot of Russian power and after a long and bloody war over- 
came the Russian armies, captured Sebastopol and the other 
fortified places on the Black Sea and vicinity, and finally com- 
pelled the czar to make peace upon such terms as she pleased 
to dictate. 

The terms of peace imposed by England were severe. All 

31 



322 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the Russian fortifications and arsenals on the Black Sea were 
dismantled, and the erection of new ones forbidden. Russia was 
never to have any warships on the Black Sea beyond a small 
number of steamers of limited size for mere police duty. Russia 
was shorn of her territory, and especially was she required to 
give up the right which she had heretofore possessed of inter- 
fering with the sultan in behalf of the rights of the millions of 
Christian inhabitants that dwelt within the Turkish dominions. 
The sultan issued a firman announcing that in his own good 
pleasure he proposed to make certain reforms in behalf of his 
Christian subjects. With this England was satisfied and left 
the Christians entirely at the mercy of the Turk. After this 
treaty, denominated the Treaty of Paris, and made March 30, 
1856, Turkey utterly neglected her promised reforms, and in 
1876 the sultan entirely abandoned his Christian subjects in 
Bulgaria and consigned them to the merciless fury of fanatical 
Mussulmans. He let loose upon them irregular hordes of Bashi 
Bazouks to murder without restraint and to plunder and destroy 
houses, villages, churches and schools. 

It was estimated that 40,000 Bulgarian Christian men, women 
and children, unarmed and defenseless, were then indiscrimi- 
nately massacred. The inhuman monsters who perpetrated these 
murders and outrages were rewarded by the sultan, and the 
leaders in the horrible work were given high positions under his 
government, and decorated with honorary badges. When the 
news of the Bulgarian atrocities reached the nations of western 
Europe public opinion was greatly excited. Even in England 
her citizens held over four hundred public meetings, at which 
both the barbarism of the Turks and the inhuman greed of their 
own government were freely denounced. Gladstone, Bright, 
Carlyle, and many others of England's best and most distin- 
guished men, published pamphlets and wrote newspaper arti- 
cles, severely denouncing their own government, "and showing 
that England, which had been Turkey's chief supporter, was 
Turkey's accomplice in the crime." In the meantime, Russia 
and the western powers, with only the half way concurrence 
of the English government, were endeavoring to induce the 
sultan to inaugurate the reforms he had promised, but their 



ADDRESSES. 323 

efforts were in vain, and the sultan, after considerable delay, on 
the 10th of April, 1877, issued a circular in reply to the protocol 
of Russia and the western powers, positively refusing to comply 
with its suggestions. Thereupon, the western powers not con- 
curring in any measures to compel the sultan to make the prom- 
ised reforms, Russia undertook the task alone and concentrated 
her armies on the Turkish frontier. 

This movement was met on the part of the Porte by the 
declaration of war, and in June, 1877, the Russian armies crossed 
the Danube and in their battles with the Turkish forces, with the 
exception of the repulse at Plevna and the delay in its siege, 
made uniform progress, and having crossed the Balkans and- 
beaten or captured all opposing armies, they arrived in sight 
of Constantinople in the month of January, 1878. On the 31st 
of January an armistice was signed as the basis of peace and on 
the 3d of March the definitive Treaty of San Stefano was signed, 
by which the promised reforms were secured and the status of 
the Christian population of the principalities and of all Turkish 
territory was made safe and secure. In the meantime the 
English government, overawed by the indignation of the English 
people over Bulgarian atrocities, had not dared directly to inter- 
fere while the warfare that Russia was waging in behalf of the 
Christians was going on, and had contented itself with mere 
growls until the work was accomplished, and a basis fixed for a 
treaty of peace. 

As soon as that basis was agreed upon, England moved, sent 
her fleets into the Black Sea, marshaled her sepoys in India, 
and announced that there must not be a treaty concluded between 
Turkey and Russia until its terms were concurred in and ap- 
proved by the powers constituting the European concert. Eng- 
land succeeded in again alarming and combining the western 
powers, by assurances that the balance of power would be 
destroyed unless the Treaty of San Stefano was modified. It 
was announced that a congress, representing the great European 
powers, would be held at Berlin for the discussion and modifica- 
tion of the Treaty of San Stefano. The czar at first declined 
to submit to this project, but in view of the warlike preparations 
of England and her threats of immediate hostilities, remembering 



324 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the Crimean War, he yielded. England assembled her European 
congress at Berlin in June, 1878, and the Treaty of San Stefano 
was amended by additions and substractions, until nothing re- 
mained to secure the objects for which the war had been fought, 
except that a portion of the principalities were provided for, 
some by independence and some by being made an Austrian 
protectorate. All the Christian population of the territory, 
except a part of the principalities, were left to Moslem mercy, 
and not only was no power authorized to interfere between the 
Christian and the Turk, but all the powers were enjoined by 
the terms of the treaty from such interference. 

England was satisfied with the repetition of the promises by 
the sultan, which he had in the past neglected to perform, and 
the performance of which in the future he no doubt intended 
again to neglect, and the performance of which everybody ex- 
pected he would again neglect. This setting aside of the Treaty 
of San Stefano and substituting in its place the Treaty of Berlin 
was a sore and solemn thing for Russia and for the Christian 
subjects of the sultan. Russia, the head of the Greek Church to 
which the Christians of the Turkish dominions belong, had spent 
her blood and treasure without stint in behalf of those Christians 
and had placed them in safety. The Christians of Turkey, 
having suffered everything from Moslem barbarity, hailed the 
advent of the victorious Russian armies with infinite joy. They 
expected and had a right to expect that what Russia had done 
for them would not be taken from them by the Christian nations 
of western Europe. The farce played between England and 
Turkey, the taking of the sultan's naked word for reform under 
circumstances which showed that there was not on either side any 
expectation of performance, may have been fun for England 
and the Turks, but to Russia and the Christians of Turkey it 
must have been a sore thing, especially to the Christians. 
England, as compensation for the part performed by her for the 
Turks in making this Treaty of Berlin, demanded and received 
from Turkey the island of Cyprus, the third in size of the 
islands of the Mediterranean, which she now holds for the same 
purpose that she holds Malta and Gibraltar, and for the same 
purpose that she maintains and has maintained the integrity of 
the Ottoman empire. 



ADDRESSES. 325 

Since the Treaty of Berlin, down to the present time, the 
Christians have been subjected, to all manner of persecution, 
oppression and extortion. During the year last past and. at this 
very time, the Christian inhabitants of the Turkish province of 
Armenia have been and are subjected to continuous massacre, 
plunder, exile and starvation by Moslem fanatics to an extent 
far outrivaling the horrible atrocities of 1876 in Bulgaria. 
England, who made this infernal work possible, must be held 
responsible for it. All the world stands aghast, shocked, and 
outraged by the hideous spectacle. England certainly occupies 
no enviable position in this matter. She does nothing and 
probably will continue to do nothing towards putting an end 
to these barbarities. She clings to her trade in the Mediterra- 
nean and her control over its waters as the dying miser clings 
to his gold coin. She dare not interfere in behalf of the Chris- 
tians with force, because she knows that the political machinery 
of the Ottoman empire is thoroughly rotten and has been for 
years, that long ago it would have tumbled to pieces but for her 
supporting hand, and that the first bona fide attempt on her 
part to restrain by force the fiery fanaticism of the bigoted 
Moslem in his habitual persecution of Christians, will break the 
Turkish empire into fragments and leave for Russia, Constan- 
tinople and a foothold on the Mediterranean. The western 
powers of Europe other than England, will do nothing unless 
England will lead them off, because they regard England as 
responsible for the present situation, and they propose to leave 
the responsibility where it is. Russia, as the head of the Greek 
Church, obtained authority by the treaties made in the reign 
of Catherine II., to interfere between the sultan and his Chris- 
tian subjects for their protection. 

When, however, in 1853, she undertook that duty, the united 
powers of western Europe, at the instigation and under the 
leadership of England, assailed her in her most vital point, de- 
prived her of valuable territory and important rights, especially 
of her right to protect the Christians of Turkey, and for the 
time being reduced her to the status of a third rate power. 
Again, in 1877, when no other powder would move, Russia under- 
took to restrain the Bulgarian atrocities, but no sooner was the 



326 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Turk brought to terms than England hastened to deny to Russia 
all adequate compensation for the work she had done, and to 
restore independence to the Turk with full power to plunder 
and massacre his Christian subjects at his own sweet will. This 
experience has no doubt taught Russia wisdom and caution. It 
is not likely that at this time she will pull the chestnuts out of 
the fire to accommodate England. It is not likely that Russia 
will spend her blood and treasure to relieve the Armenian 
Christians, with the certainty before her eyes that her work, 
when performed, will be set at naught by English interference, 
or that she will knowingly furnish a pretext which will enable 
England to combine the world against her by a hue and cry 
about the balance of power. She knows that she cannot be 
blamed on account of the present situation in Armenia and that 
the world must hold Great Britain responsible for it, and that all 
Christendom will condemn England for the avarice, the love of 
dominion, the inhumanity of its people, and their wanton dis- 
regard of the wrongs and sufferings of their Christian brethren. 
Russia will not do anything at the present time but await the 
impending downfall of the Turkish empire and then she will 
probably try to get her share of the fragments. 

Ever since Russia, under Peter the Great, first emerged from 
barbarism and became ambitious of civilization and progress in 
the arts and in the accumulation of wealth, she has earnestly 
desired and greatly needed the possesson of Constantinople. The 
possession of that important place would have opened up her 
vast empire to communication with the rest of the world, to 
the civilizing influence of commerce, and would have contributed 
towards fitting her people for a government with constitutional 
limitations. Constantinople itself, freed from the dominion 
of the indolent, fanatical, and non-progressive Turk, and made 
the great mart of business and of trade between the immense 
empire of Russia and the rest of the world, would make rapid 
strides towards restoration to its ancient importance and mag- 
nificence. The student who studies the causes which accelerate 
or retard the world's progress, and who is anxious to see its 
forward march in everything that ennobles and enlightens, must 
welcome the advent of the Russian to Constantinople, bringing 



ADDRESSES. 327 

overthrow to the dominion of the Turk and toleration to the 
Christian believer. What matter if some of the profit of the 
trade of the Mediterranean should fail to reach the bursting 
coffers of England, and Russia should get a little of it with which 
to relieve the poverty of her people? What matter would it be 
if the absolute power of England over all the waters of the 
Mediterranean should be modified by giving Russia a small 
voice as to matters there? Every impartial eye can see that 
Constantinople in the possession of Russia would add much more 
to the sum total of the world's improvement than its possession 
by any other power could add thereto. Constantinople needs 
Russia that its Christians may be protected and its ancient im- 
portance and glory restored. Russia needs Constantinople that 
her immense dormant resources may be developed and that her 
people may become enlightened, wealthy and refined. Russian 
rulers and people know the importance of Constantinople to 
them and they will never rest until it is won. It is in the 
thoughts of every patriotic Russian by day and by night that 
his country must and will have Constantinople. Sooner or later 
Russia, on some route, will find the road to Constantinople, and 
if England does not yield voluntarily she will be compelled to 
yield. A thing right in itself and so strongly demanded must 
ultimately be granted. 

We have made this extended review of the conduct of Eng- 
land in dealing with the eastern question, in order to show the 
animus that controls her policy at all times and everywhere. It 
is an inordinate greed for money and power. After having done 
more than any other nation in carrying on the African slave 
trade and establishing negro slavery, she suddenly assumed the 
role of the philanthropist, and in that character made a great 
show of abolishing slavery in her own colonies and of suppressing 
the African slave trade, while the tendency of those measures 
was to cripple the powers which she wanted to see crippled. We 
have seen that England, to protect her trade and power in the 
Mediterranean, maintained the Turk in an independent position 
so that he could practice at his pleasure his cruel barbarities 
upon unoffending Christians. In our Revolutinary War, Eng- 
land instigated the savages on our frontiers to plunder and burn 



328 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

our towns and indiscriminately murder our defenceless men, 
women and children, and justified herself in so doing by saying 
that she should use all the means that God and nature had placed 
in her hands to subjugate rebels. Since our beginning as a 
nation, England has never been our friend. She is always 
encroaching upon us or disputing with us about a boundary, 
seals, fishing rights, or something else. We are obliged to settle 
these controversies while her warships are thronging her fortified 
naval stations on our coast ready to strike. And whenever we 
settle any question with England we are obliged to negotiate 
and debate in regard to it under the disadvantage that she is 
prepared for immediate war and we are not. It will always be 
so as long as Great Britain holds dominions on this continent. 
She is philanthropic or misanthropic, humane or cruel. Christian, 
Moslem, infidel, or pagan, liberal or illiberal, according as her 
ends, which are always selfish, are best subserved. 

Our country, in our dealings with foreign nations, has had 
a wise policy that has gradually developed. The present situa- 
tion calls for a further development of that policy. The great 
nations of Europe are now maintaining immense standing armies 
and powerful navies with all the materials necessary for imme- 
diate war on hand. It is contrary to the spirit of our institu- 
tions and we do not desire to maintain corresponding armaments 
and corresponding readiness for immediate war ; but we must do 
so or stand at great disadvantage in settling the territorial ques- 
tions that are constantly arising with European powers, 
especially with England. Hence it has become an object of 
great importance to us that the great powers of Europe, par- 
ticularly England, should not possess dominions on any part of 
this continent. The growth which our foreign policy has had 
in the past should continue. Washington, that far seeing man, 
initiated this policy by announcing that the United States 
would not interfere with the affairs of the Eastern world; that 
it would not make any offensive and defensive alliances there; 
that it offered to all nations, alike, friendly relations, conceding 
nothing to one which it did not concede to the other. These ideas 
were embodied tersely into the mottoes of the succeeding ad- 
ministrations in these words: "Good will and friendship to aU 



ADDRESSES. 329 

nations, entangling alliances with none." This policy was 
enlarged in 1823, and President Monroe then announced that 
European governments must not plant new colonies, nor extend 
their existing possessions nor interfere with existing govern- 
ments within the limits of the western hemisphere. This doc- 
trine, called the *' Monroe Doctrine," has been indorsed and 
approved by our people without distinction of party. The time 
has now arrived when circumstances demand that in order that 
justice may be done, and the peace of nations preserved, there 
should be a further development of our foreign policy. We 
ought to demand of the great powers of Europe relinquishment 
of domination over any part of the western hemisphere upon 
such terms as in view of the present situation, are just and 
equitable, to be determined by arbitration or otherwise. In 
making this demand we should not threaten war, but we should 
base our claim upon those broad and equitable principles that 
have been recognized already by the controlling nations of the 
earth, and are getting better and better recognized as time goes 
on. The principle has been recognized that territory may be 
taken from a nation, and parceled out among other nations, or 
erected into a new and independent nation ; that the sovereignty 
of a nation may be denied and a protectorate established, ac- 
cordingly as by so doing, wars may be done away with, the 
permanent peace of nations made secure, and the welfare of the 
whole world promoted, England with the consent of the other 
great powers, occupies and controls Egypt for its good, for the 
preservation of peace, and for the purpose of maintaining 
the Suez Canal open to the commerce of the world. England 
compelled China to open her ports to the commerce of the 
world, on the ground that nations owed to each other recip- 
rocal obligations in respect to trade and intercourse, and that 
if any nation shut itself up, and refused to trade and have 
intercourse with the rest of mankind, it 'v^as the right of any 
nation or nations thereby debarred, to compel by force such 
delinquent nation to perform its obligations to the outside world. 
England conquered India, and now rules over the countless 
millions of people which inhabit that country. This act of 
invasion and conquest of ancient sovereignties the world ap- 



330 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

proves because India itself is benefited thereby, and the wel- 
fare of the world promoted. England, France, Germany, 
and other European nations are today engaged in subduing 
the wild tribes of Africa, Madagascar, Australia, and the 
numerous islands of Polynesia, and in planting colonies every- 
where. Nobody objects. Everybody approves, and the wel- 
fare of the world is promoted by having the waste places of 
the earth now haunted by savages alone peopled by civilized 
men. America has always refrained and always will refrain 
from intermeddling with the affairs of the eastern hemisphere. 
"We only demand that the rights of our citizens lawfully sojourn- 
ing there be respected. England and her concert of European 
powers may settle the eastern question to suit themselves. They 
may maintain the integrity of the Ottoman empire or dissolve 
it, and parcel out its territory as they please. Upon them must 
rest the responsibility for the wrongs now or hereafter done to 
the Christian inhabitants of the Turkish territory. They may 
regulate jointly or severally the affairs of Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, or Australia, and the many isles in the waters of the 
eastern hemisphere, as unto them seemeth good. The United 
States will not interfere, but she claims, as one of the great 
powers of the earth, that her voice should be a potential one in 
regulating the affairs of the western hemisphere, and that she, 
with the other nations of America, should determine the question 
as to the distribution of territory in that hemisphere. The well 
being of America and the welfare of the world demand that 
it should be so. It would be a great relief to America if the 
great powers of Europe exercising dominion over American 
territory would abandon such dominion, and permit the people 
of such territory to govern themselves. We have already dis- 
cussed Spain, and the character of the rule which she exercises 
in America. The other powers of Europe, with the exception of 
England, hold dominion over territory in America of limited 
extent, and of small importance. Whether or not such dominion 
shall be surrendered, is a question of little account except in 
one case it would be obeying, and in the other disobeying a 
general rule. England claims to have great dominions in 
America as she does everywhere else. The substantial part of 



ADDRESSES. 331 

what she claims in America, is Canada, and the territory con- 
nected therewith in JN'orth America, lying north of us and not 
including Alaska. This claim embraces a very considerable part 
of the earth, covering an area of at least three and a half mil- 
lions of square miles; a little of it inhabited, and some of it 
uninhabitable. This vast Canadian territory is susceptible of 
indefinite development; but it is not now making progress. It 
is substantially at a standstill. There is more emigration going out 
of it than immigration into it. It would be so no longer if British 
domination was removed. English dominion is an incubus upon 
the territory north of us. While it continues there will be no 
prosperity, no go-a-head. Enterprise will languish, business will 
stagnate, and there will be no growth, but let the Canadian 
territories be free and independent, allow the people there to 
strike out for themselves, and the march of. progress will begin 
at once. The woodchopper 's axe will make the forests ring. 
Its mineral deposits will be discovered, and made available. The 
hum of busy industries will be heard where now the noise of 
falling waters is the only sound that breaks the solemn stillness 
of nature. Population will increase at a rapid rate, and land 
values will be quadrupled many times. Everything will be 
booming. 

While, as we have seen, the removal of British domination 
would be a great boon to the nations now organized in the west- 
em hemisphere, it would be an infinitely greater boon to the 
people of those American territories now under British dominion. 
The domination of England over any part of America is not 
beneficial to anybody there. It is offensive and annoying to 
everybody there. It is especially paralyzing to the territories 
over which it exists. It is an unqualified nuisance in every 
particular so far as America is concerned. So far as England 
herself is concerned it would be better for her to give up her 
dominions in America. She gets no revenue from her Canadian 
territories. It must cost her heavily to maintain her fortified 
naval stations at Halifax, Bermuda and Esquimault. The 
prosperity that independence will give to the people of the 
Canadian territories will enable them greatly to augment their 
trade with England, and thus they will richly compensate her 



332 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

for any loss she may think she has suffered by granting them 
independence. England has dominions from which she is de- 
riving a profit where she is needed and desired, sufficient in 
magnitude to keep all her governing capacity busily employed. 
Certainly it cannot be expected that she will desire to hold on to 
dominion which affords her no profit, where she is neither needed 
nor wanted, and where she is nothing but a nuisance to the people 
of that dominion, and the people of all its neighboring countries. 
In regard to the foregoing suggestions inquiry perhaps may 
be made somewhat in this way: ''Suppose all that has been 
stated to be true, and that the dominion of England over any 
part of America is an unmitigated nuisance to the people of that 
dominion, and to the people of every part of America. Suppose 
further that England refuses to treat in regard to surrendering 
her American dominions, and refuses to submit the question to 
arbitration, what can be done about it?" The answer to this 
inquiry on the case supposed is plain. The people of America 
would be fully justified in taking up arms and compelling 
England to relinquish her dominion over every part of America. 
Such an undertaking, however, ought not to be entered upon by 
the American people unless after careful consideration they think 
they could accomplish it, because such attempts when they fail 
are not productive of good, they only make matters worse. The 
circumstances of modern times have been, and are, such that 
strong nations even when they had good cause have hesitated 
about going to war. They have delayed and debated long before 
resorting to that final arbiter. The course, however, which we 
ought to take in the ease supposed is not doubtful. Let us ad- 
here to our established foreign policy, and the principles that 
underlie it at all times on all occasions, whatever political party 
may be in power. Let England understand that we consider her 
existing dominion in America to be an unmitigated nuisance, 
and that our people are unitedly determined that she must 
abandon it. Let us give our reasons fully, and continue our 
importunities without ceasing, and it is believed that she will 
yield. But if not and war must come then let us do as we have 
done before in similar circumstances when we were much weaker 
than we are now. Let us trust in the God of battles. 



ADDRESSES. 333 



THE SAFETY OF THE REPUBLIC, THE SUPREME LAW. 

President's Address, Delivered at the Meeting of the 
Grafton and Coos Bar Association, at Woodsville, N. H., 
January 31, 1896.* 

Gentlemen : 

Our ears are constantly assailed by complaints about the 
times, and the voice of the croaker is never hushed. There is 
a vast difference, however, between the involuntary wail of a 
distressed people when great public calamities occur, and the 
loud noise of the habitual faultfinder. The constant uproar 
kept up by individuals, disgruntled by real or imaginary wrongs, 
alarms the timid and the nervous, and at the same time greatly 
annoys cooler and more level-headed people. These nuisances 
who are always on the wrong side of everything work their 
greatest mischief and do the most harm by taking sides against 
their own government in all its controversies with foreign 
nations, and by denouncing every effort of our rulers to vindi- 
cate the national honor, secure the public welfare and preserve 
the respect of mankind. The evolutionary forces that are con- 
stantly operating upon politics, and upon all social organizations 
cause change to succeed change. The men and interests that 
yesterday were basking in the sunshine of favor today exchange 
places with the men and the interests that yesterday were shiver- 
ing in the cold. It is indeed an ill wind that blows nobody 
any good. Very rarely, if ever, has human experience 
encountered calamities so searchingly disastrous that somebody 
has not derived therefrom comfort and profit. We have little 
fear of being demonstrated to be in error, when we say that 
there always will be rejoicing where there is mourning, and that 
there always will be mourning where there is rejoicing. The cup 



*Mr. Bingham was mored to the preparation of this address by certain articles 
appearing in the Reviews shortly before from the pen of Prof. Charles Elliott Nor- 
ton of Harvard University. 



334 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

that humanity drinks is a cup of mixture. Let what will happen 
somebody is sure to be disappointed, and some other body is 
sure to be gratified. The one who is gratified probably will be 
quiet, while he who is disappointed will clamor loudly and charge 
frauds and wrongs that are perhaps groundless. The mind 
imbued with a little philosophy, in view of these facts, will con- 
clude that there is no safety in harkening to what everybody 
says, or in drifting with the floodwood on the popular tide ; that 
convictions founded on careful observation and conscientious 
study are the true guides; that plans carefully considered and 
approved by the conscience and the judgment should be put in 
execution, and that Davy Crockett has given the true rule in 
these few words, "Be sure you are right, then go ahead." 

At the present time the habitual faultfinders are lifting up 
their voices with unusual vigor, in denouncing the recent action 
of the federal executive in regard to international affairs. The 
obvious intention of the British government to appropriate a 
large territory to its own use, contemptuously disregarding the 
earnest claims of Venezuela thereto, compelled President Cleve- 
land, after due remonstrance, to take decisive action. The 
Unitd States could not remain quiet and tamely acquiesce while 
Venezuela was being robbed of her territory by a European 
power, without ignominiously surrendering the Munroe Doc- 
trine — a time-honored doctrine, steadily upheld and sanctioned 
by our people. Our government could not surrender that doc- 
tme to British domination without sacrificing the honor and 
prestige of the nation, its own self-respect, and the respect of 
the world. 

In this emergency, President Cleveland, with dignity 
and firmness, as became the chief magistrate of the leading 
nation of the American continent, stood up and announced 
that Venezuela, being an American republic, was shielded by 
the Monroe Doctrine; that her claim to the disputed territory 
must be considered, and if impartial arbitrators awarded it to 
her, then she must not be stripped of it forcibly by any Euro- 
pean power. 

The great body of the American people are patriotic, and 
all patriotic Americans indorse and uphold President Cleveland 



ADDRESSES. 835 

in enforcing the Monroe Doctrine. The habitual faultfinders 
have received some accessions to their ranks. A few college 
presidents and professors, a few clergymen, a few business 
men and their cheap hangers-on, and a few newspapers have 
joined in the hue and cry against the Monroe Doctrine. Also a 
few persons, once our countrymen, who have partly expatriated 
themselves, and are seeking admission, or have obtained admis- 
sion or quasi admission, into the high-toned circles of European 
society; and also some low-down, coarse, millionaires, who, 
hankering with untutored desires for elevation above their sur- 
roundings, are seeking to buy marriages for their daughters to 
impecunious members of the titled aristocracy of Europe, are 
terribly shocked at the idea that there may be war with England. 

It does not seem to have dawned upon the understanding of 
any of these parties that there is such a thing as national dis- 
honor, or that shame will follow base submission. They can see 
nothing but the narrow course of their own selfish lives, and 
whatever interrupts that they denounce. The college presi- 
dents and professors and the clergymen have especially por- 
trayed in vivid colors their admiration for England, and their 
recognition of the alleged strong ties that bind its people to our 
people. 

Their admiration extends to all that England does, whether 
it be plundering the unresisting natives of far-off countries and 
afterwards dominating over them with an iron hand, or whether 
it be planting colonies in waste places, that grow and thrive until 
they rival in Anglo-Saxon energy and progressive civilization the 
parent stock itself, or whether it be evangelizing heathen lands, 
whose unhappy natives, as the Gospel is dispensed among them, 
wither and die out, as tender summer plants wither and die 
when the autumnal frosts arrive. 

The college and clerical friends of England lay great stress 
upon the tie of kindred, and allege that the English people are 
our blood relations, who are marching side by side with us in the 
great work of Christianizing, civilizing, and enlightening man- 
kind. One of these college professors, in a recent article pub- 
lished in one of our leading literary periodicals, after extolling 
the ability of the English government to maintain wholesome 



336 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

rule over a remote people not suitable to be incorporated into 
any civilized commonwealth, suggests that it would be a great 
blessing to the United States if England would take the posses- 
sion and control of the island of Cuba and the Hawaiian Islands ; 
that England would soon reduce the diverse and discordant 
races of those islands to subjection, and make it safe to do busi- 
ness there; that the American people, being so near to those 
islands, could develop them, secure their trade, and possess all 
the advantages that the islands afford, while England would 
bear the burden and cost of governing them; that the United 
States could not, under our form of government, possess and rule 
those islands as outlying provinces, and did not want them, on 
account of the character of their inhabitants, incorporated into 
the Union as states. 

This collegiate professor who made the foregoing suggestions 
might have illustrated his statesmanship still further. He might 
have further suggested, with equal or greater propriety, that the 
thirteen original colonies, who foolishly declared their inde- 
pendence in a little frolic they had on the 4th day of July, 1776, 
humbly petition Mother England to forgive their youthful in- 
discretions, particularly that little escapade of throwing the 
tea overboard into the waters of Boston Harbor ; and also to for- 
give the many indignities with which the glorious flag of Eng- 
land was assailed, and to overlook the forcible resistance made 
by perverse rebels to lawful authority at Bunker Hill, Benning- 
ton, Saratoga, Yorktown, and divers other places, and to re- 
ceive repentant rebels once more into the bosom of their be- 
nign mother, whose wonderful capacity to govern and love of 
governing will save the returning prodigals from the burden- 
some labor of governing themselves. 

The learned collegiate professor-statesman might also recom- 
mend that the thirty-two states which have been added to the 
Union since the estrangement be tendered as applicants for 
the blessings of being governed by England, and as a propitia- 
tion for wrongs done. We submit that what is referred to by 
us as actually embodied in the essay of the college professor is a 
gross and unpatriotic libel upon our country and its governing 
power. 



ADDRESSES. 337 

The assertion that our government has not the power and 
abundant precedents for the exercise of the power to annex and 
govern foreign territory is false. The magnificent Louisianian 
territory purchased by Jefferson, and out of which so many 
states have been formed — Florida, Texas, California, New Mex- 
ico, Utah, Arizona, and lastly Alaska — were once foreign terri- 
tory, and they have been annexed to, and governed by, the 
United States, and are now part and parcel of our vast country. 
Is there an American who willingly would part with any of these 
territories, — even Alaska, with its ice-bound and desolate 
shores? If the course of events should make it desirable or for 
the interest and safety of the United States to annex Cuba and 
Hawaii, either or both, and it can be done without wronging 
anybody, then it should be done. There can be no doubt about 
the competency of the United States to govern those islands as 
territories and admit them to statehood only when fitted for it, 
and in short to deal with them in all respects as the United States 
in the past has dealt and is now dealing with its territories. 

The idea that England knows how to govern, but the United 
States does not; that the United States will secure more trade 
and derive greater advantages by having England possess and 
govern Cuba and Hawaii than it possibly can by accepting those 
islands as a part of its own territories, is the idea of one who 
has not got an American heart and who is profoundly ignorant 
of the history of England and his own country and is particu- 
largly ignorant of the motives that control England in all she 
does. The thirteen colonies that formed the nucleus around 
which has grown the United States as today constituted, were 
planted mainly by English colonists of high moral and intellec- 
tual standing, who sought homes in the wilderness that they 
might be free and at liberty to enjoy their religious opinions 
unmolested. 

So far as these colonies were augmented by emigration sub- 
sequently to their planting, it was emigration from the most 
energetic and enlightened portion of the English population. 
What was best in the customs, laws, and institutions of England 
and was adapted to the condition of these colonies was trans- 
planted and made the basis of their customs, laws, and institu- 

32 



338 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

tions, and thus at the very beginning they started with the full 
benefit of all the civilization which England then had, purged 
of feudalism, barbarism, and whatever else was bad and not 
wanted. At the inauguration of the Revolution, American 
statesmen were pitted squarely against English statesmen, and 
the history of the Revolutionary period, together with that of 
the subsequent period down to the formation and successful 
launching of the Federal Constitution, furnishes a grand oppor- 
tunity to compare the knowledge that the statesmen and people 
of America possess of the science of government with the like 
knowledge of the statesmen and people of England, and to 
judge which of the two has the better capacity to govern either 
themselves or anybody else. A verdict upon this evidence fairly 
rendered cannot be otherwise than in favor of the statesmen and 
people of America. 

It may be said that since Revolutionary times our people 
and our statesmen have deteriorated, while the English people 
and statesmen have improved in the art of government. The 
suggestion that the American people have degenerated is false. 
American pride cannot tolerate and ought not to tolerate such 
an idea for a moment. Free institutions, inspiring examples, 
and universal education are not the conditions under which a 
people like ours degenerate. On the contrary, any people who 
have the seeds of progress in them under such conditions must 
improve. It is undoubtedly true that the masses of the people 
today are, as respects moral and intellectual power, nearer 
equality with the men who are their leaders than the masses of 
the people in Revolutionary times were with the men who were 
their leaders. This comes from not limiting education and train- 
ing to the few, and the consequent elevation of the masses of 
people in moral and intellectual power. 

The times indicate that our people know what good govern- 
ment is, and that they are bound to keep trying till they get it. 
The man who today accepts an office of responsibility knows he 
must do his work well or official decapitation will follow. At the 
present time the great body of the people, having been educated 
and trained to think for themselves, are intelligent and with 
keen discrimination are seeking for rulers, men that are qualified 



ADDRESSES. 339 

to govern. The ballot is swift to correct any mistake in the 
choice of a ruler found on trial to be incompetent. 

It is certain that the officeholder who by reason of incom- 
petency disappoints expectation cannot rely upon the fealty 
of the voting masses of his party to keep him in place, and there 
can be no doubt that the ability of the American people to gov- 
ern themselves and others has not deteriorated but improved 
since the days of the Revolution, and that as respects Cuba and 
Hawaii, the United States and not England is the nation to be 
relied upon as capable of governing those islands with good 
results. 

None of the dependencies of England have prospered as the 
United States has prospered. Canada has been treated prob- 
ably with greater equity and more liberality than any other 
province of England, and yet progress is very slow there. Its 
growth is very little, with a great deal more emigration from it 
than to it. If Canada were made a territory of the United 
States, unquestionably there would be a great change for the 
better. Population would multiply rapidly. Land would rise 
in value. In the place of stagnation, there would be life and 
activity. Prosperity would be general throughout its borders. 

The history of Ireland shows that England knows how to 
tyrannize over a people, and teach them to hate her with an 
undying hatred ; but the evidence afforded by that history upon 
the question of England 's capacity to govern well, tends directly 
to demonstrate that she is incapable of administering good 
wholesome government over a people, and making them happy 
and friendly to her. 

The shrewd suggestion of the college professor that if England 
would assume the burden of governing Cuba and Hawaii, it 
would give this country, without incurring responsibility or ex- 
pense, all the profit that could be made out of those islands by 
the way of trade, or otherwise, betrays the most childlike ig- 
norance of what England really is, and the motives that under- 
lie all her movements. The greed of England for trade is a 
mania. While holding with a relentless grip the monopoly of 
her existing avenues of trade, she is encroaching everywhere, 
and scouring the world over in search of new ones. She has 



340 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

maintained the integrity of the Ottoman empire for the last half 
century, and enabled the sultan to butcher thousands upon 
thousands of Christians for the sake of making secure her mon- 
opoly of the trade of the Mediterranean. In her quarrel with 
Venezuela about territorial boundaries, she is seeking the control 
of the mouth of the Orinoco Biver, thereby securing a new avenue 
for future trade. If Cuba and Hawaii were controlled and 
governed by England, she would take for herself all their trade 
and all the other advantages those islands might afford. As a 
greedy child is swift to swallow sweetmeats when permitted, so 
would England be swift to take Cuba and Hawaii if the United 
States would permit it, and when she takes them, the taking will 
be for her own exclusive use. 

This little knot of faultfinders, college professors and clergy- 
men, whatever the merits of the controversy may be that arises 
between England and the United States, can be calculated upon 
always as sure to be against their own country. They continue, 
with increased vehemence, to uphold the action of the English 
government, and condemn the action of their own government, 
after the English people themselves have emphatically expressed 
a different opinion. They unqualifiedly condemned the posi- 
tion of President Cleveland, that England ought to submit to 
impartial arbitration, the dispute about the Venezuelan 
boundary, and at the same time they warmly commended the re- 
fusal of Lord Salisbury to assent to such an arbitration. They 
still continue their abuse of Cleveland and their laudation of 
Salisbury, and their allegations that Cleveland's proposition to 
arbitrate is an insult to England, notwithstanding the fact that 
the great body of the English people condemn Lord Salisbury's 
refusal to arbitrate and insist on the acceptance of the identical 
plan for arbitration proposed by President Cleveland. It is a 
lamentable fact that here, in our very midst, we have men, 
calling themselves men and assuming to be potent in our affairs, 
whose hearts are alienated from their own country and abso- 
lutely devoted to England. They have no shame. Not a blush 
mantles their brazen cheeks when their championship of England 
as volunteers is repudiated by the English people. On the con- 
trary, their noisy abuse of their own government grows louder 



ADDRESSES. 341 

and louder. There is one great consolation, however, to be men- 
tioned in this connection. These enemies of their own country- 
are getting less and less numerous as time passes away. Al- 
though they may be more venomous than the Tories of the Revo- 
lution or those men, who, in the War of 1812 gave treasonable 
aid and comfort to our enemies, yet their numbers are but a 
mere speck when compared with the multitude of Tories in the 
War of the Revolution, or with the multitude of our countrymen 
who sided with Great Britain in the War of 1812. There is 
certainly a good prospect that this annoying, unpatriotic and 
disreputable element of our population ultimately will disappear 
altogether. 

The great body of our people are strong in their patriotism. 
They believe in the republic and its mission. They never will 
tolerate an administration that shirks its legitimate work, or 
skrinks from taking the attitude and adopting the measures 
which the honor, dignity, welfare, and safety of the nation de- 
mand. 

An inquiry naturally arises here as to the origin of this 
bad element in our population that so instinctively favors Eng- 
land, and so perversely opposes its own country. Its exponents 
seldom use arguments in their trade, and when they do, they 
utterly disregard consistency. This irrational faction always 
opens its batteries on the position of our government, whenever 
there is a dispute with England. War in general is denounced 
as wicked per se, and horribly wicked when it occurs with our 
blood relatives, the good people of England. Yet no general 
principle is advocated that would justify the denunciation of 
war as wicked per se. These faultfinders, with their collegiate 
and clerical allies, do not adopt the doctrines of the non-resist- 
ants except as to England. The genuine non-resistant is logical. 
He advocates fundamental principles, from which his conclu- 
sions can be drawn logically. He holds that the use of force 
at all times and under all circumstances is wrong; that those 
who take part offensively, and those who take part defensively, 
in war, are both alike in the wrong; that all human government 
resting as it does for support on the sword is wrong ; and that no 
man has a right to use force in defense of his own life. What- 



342 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ever may be thought of the doctrines of the non-resistants, it 
is certain that their conclusions follow logically from their prem- 
ises. 

The absolute devotion of our Anglican worshipers to England 
cannot be justified upon any ground except the assumption that 
England can do no wrong; that whatever she does or claims is 
right, and that whoever does not acquiesce in all she does and de- 
sires is in the wrong. Upon this broad assumption as the ground 
of their action they can stand and logically defend their conduct. 
They dare not avow openly that this assumption is the ground of 
their action, although in their hearts they respond to it, well 
knowing that any such utterances in the ears of the American 
people would be received with great indignation. Not daring to 
state the real motives for their action, they seek for plausible 
ones. Hence the cry about the horrors of war between kindred 
and blood relatives. This cry, however, on a consideration of the 
actual situation is not sufficiently supported by the facts to make 
it even appear to be a bona fide utterance. There is only a frac- 
tion of the present population of the United States that can 
claim descent from an English ancestry — all the other nations 
of Europe have contributed towards making up our population, 
some of them largely. Asia also has furnished some emigrants 
for the United States, and the American citizens of African 
descent are numerous. So far as that portion of our people 
who can claim an English ancestry is concerned, the English 
ancestor emigrated here as a general rule many generations ago, 
and the instances must be very few where a tie of kindred is 
now actually recognized between a citizen of the United States 
and a citizen of England. We have had two wars with England, 
both of a sanguinary and embittered character, and at times 
when this kinship between the two people was much nearer than 
it is now. 

The American who loves his country must have the memories 
and traditions of its past treasured up in his heart, and no 
gushing fondness that he could have for England and some 
forty-ninth cousin possibly dwelling within her boundaries 
would make him consent, for such a reason, that the safety and 
welfare of his, country be endangered, or that its name be dis- 
honored and made a by-word and a reproach. 



ADDRESSES. 343 

There is nothing in the past that imposes upon us the obliga- 
tion to grant special favors to England. On the contrary, she 
has never been our friend when we needed help. Once when our 
need was sorest France gave us substantial aid. If at that time 
France had not given us her aid, it is impossible for us now to 
see how American independence could have been established, or 
what would have saved George Washington, John Adams, Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and their associates from 
being hanged as traitors on English gibbets. In the course of 
events our independence was established, and having prospered 
we stand today on equality with the great powers of the earth. 
Every nation is in peace our friend, in war our enemy. The 
mutual obligations that exist between us and every other nation 
require each to render to the other exact justice. In our inter- 
national dealings with France and England we must treat both 
alike, although one has done us favors and the other has not. 
We must be just to both, and we cannot submit to be wronged 
by either without being disgraced as well as wronged. 

The unyielding and unreasoning devotion of the worshippers 
of England that dwell on this side of the Atlantic itself suggests 
their origin. With their surroundings, no such instinctive, 
spontaneous adherence to the cause of England could exist here 
now unless in accordance with the laws that govern heredity. 
The poison of other times has been transmitted from genera- 
tion to generation down to the present day. This poison is in 
the veins of our worshippers of England at their birth and con- 
trols them through life. They inherit it by regular descent 
from the Tories of the Revolution, and from the opponents of 
the War of 1812. Of all the bad work that these enemies of the 
country are doing the worst is, perhaps, the resistance they are 
making to any expenditure by the government for the fortifica- 
tion of our defenseless cities and coasts or for building up a navy 
or for any purpose of defense. 

They even object to allowing boys at school to take their 
necessary exercise in the form of a military drill. They say 
all this nurses and keeps alive the war spirit. In view of the 
fact that England as a menace to us maintains immense fortresses 
on or near all the North American coasts as naval stations and 



344 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

military depots, and that in twenty-four hours after notice iron- 
clad ships can issue from those stations, ravage our coasts, levy 
tribute on our cities, or plunder and destroy them, such re- 
sistance to the erection and maintenance of defenses necessary 
for the protection of interests so vast in importance to the 
country must be regarded not merely as unpatriotic, but as an 
open manifestation of the criminal intent which, when accom- 
panied by the overt act, constitutes the crime of treason. 

There is an argument in universal use among those who resist 
every proposition to look after the national defenses and see 
that the exposed parts of the country are duly protected. This 
argument consists in slinging the euphonious word "jingo" as an 
epithet at every man who dares to suggest that the country ought 
not to be left wholly defenceless. This argument, by many repe- 
titions, is piled up mountain high whenever a word is heard in 
disparagement of England, or in condemnation of her acts. If 
a bold citizen should be so presumptuous as openly to declare 
that "our country has some rights that England must respect," 
he would be charged with threatening war, and the epithet jingo 
would be hurled upon him in such quantities that his ability to 
get out from under the load into the light of day would be 
doubtful. The advent of the word jingo is so recent that the 
public only know it as a term of reproach. The consequent 
mystery that enshrouds the meaning of the epithet leaves the 
victim at whom it is hurled dazed with uncertainty as to what 
the awful thing is of which he is accused. It will always em- 
barrass a disputant to be assailed by epithets the meaning of 
which he does not know. It was the knowledge of this fact that 
enabled the great Irish agitator, Daniel O 'Connell, when a young 
sprig of the law, to win a wager which he made with some other 
youthful members of the legal fraternty that he could vanquish, 
in wordy warfare, a voluble old Irish woman who was notorious 
on account of great ability to abuse with the tongue and to 
blackguard. O 'Connell refreshed his memory with the names 
of the various figures in geometry, and commenced upon the old 
woman by saying, "You infamous old parallelogram! you de- 
funct hypothenuse ! you are not fit to be made into either trape- 
ziums, or trapezoids," and continued this attack with volubility, 



ADDRE88E8. 345 

using for epithets the figures in geometry. The old termagant 
was amazed. These words were not in her vocabulary, and 
seemed terrific to her. She could not match them, and subsided, 
leaving to O'Connell an easy victory. 

The word jingo, however, probably has served now in the place 
of argument about as long as it can. The friends of England 
must find something else with which to protect themselves from 
the just indignation of the American people. Whatever may be 
said about the two great Anglo-Saxon nations, as to their being 
of the same blood and speaking the same language, it is certain 
that England has been our bitter enemy. When did she become 
our friend ? As recently as our late Civil War, she showed unmis- 
takably that she was not our friend. She then manifested 
plainly, not only that she was willing but that she would be glad 
to see our great republic broken up into discordant and bellig- 
erent fragments. What has happened since the Civil War to 
make her more friendly? We have grown more powerful, and 
the formerly belligerent sections of the Union are now firmly 
united, but while those facts might tend to make her more shy 
about showing us ill will, they would tend also directly to aug- 
ment her jealousy and strengthen existing dislike. The vast and 
costly fortifications of England on or near our coasts are either 
worthless or not needed, so far as the defense of her territories 
is concerned. They are not designed for defense. They are de- 
signed for aggression, and for aggression upon us. They are de- 
signed for safe stations where the armies and navies of England 
can congregate and assail us almost instantly. 

There is no evidence that at heart England today is any more 
friendly to us than she has been in the past. As the situation 
now is, nothing could be more foolish and criminal than to leave 
our coasts defenseless, cease to build war ships and dismantle 
the few we have, "beat our swords into ploughshares, and our 
spears into pruning-hooks, " and teach our young men that they 
must not learn war any more. The history of the world fur- 
nishes a multitude of examples illustrating the disastrous fate 
that overtakes nations when they discard the means necessary 
to protect them from the assaults of warlike enemies. The great, 
rich, and populous empire of China furnishes a very recent ex- 



346 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ample that demonstrates how foolish a thing it is at this day for 
a nation to fail to be prepared to defend itself against the modes 
and implements of modern warfare. A rich country without de- 
fenses and inhabited by a timid, unwarlike people, is a standing 
invitation to all outside adventurers and nations to invade it, 
to conquer and possess it, stripping the miserable inhabitants of 
everything, and either enslaving them or driving them into exile. 
As humanity is, at the present time, the millennial period not 
having arrived and there being no signs of it, the surest guaranty 
of peace which a nation can have is the world's estimate that it 
is a just nation, that it will ask nothing but what is right, that 
it is prepared for war, and will submit to nothing wrong. The 
proposition that war is wrong per se, and can never be justified, 
is a proposition which cannot be maintained except upon the 
broad ground of the non-resistants. Nations have the right of 
self-defense, and are under legal and moral obligation to engage 
in war whenever it is necessary in order to protect the lives and 
property of their citizens. War is right or wrong according to 
the circumstances that occasion it. Throughout all the ages since 
the world began wars have succeeded wars in constant succes- 
sion, apparently in obedience to the fixed laws that regulate the 
lot of humanity. 

In the same manner, storms and earthquakes succeed storms 
and earthquakes in constant succession, apparently in obedience 
to the fixed laws that regulate the operations of nature. Our 
observation teaches us that the winds and storms, while they 
strew their paths with ruins, purify the natural atmosphere and 
make it wholesome. In like manner, the student who studies 
history with a philosophic eye learns that war, while apparently 
sweeping everything to destruction, produces great changes for 
the better by removing the obstacles in the path of human pro- 
gress. He finds, when the ultimate consequences of war are 
reached, that humanity thereby has gained infinite good. It 
must be admitted that unjust wars have occasioned much wrong, 
and yet it would be hard, perhaps impossible, to name a war that 
did not remove a great evil or in some way improve the condition 
of mankind. War must be accounted just when it is waged for 
deliverance from wrongs that can be borne no longer. It is time 



ADDRESSES. 347 

for war when a people are loaded with burdens greater than 
they can bear, and all the remedies afforded by peace have been 
tried and failed. The inquiry has arisen whether or not the 
nations of Europe would be benefited by a general European war 
if it resulted in saving them the immense burden and expense of 
keeping up constantly preparation for immediate war. All 
Europe is today, and for some time past has been, covered with 
military encampments. Each nation is augmenting constantly 
its immense standing armies, and adding to its accumulation of 
war-ships and war materials. The young men, the bone and 
sinew of a country, are soldiers, non-producers and consumers, 
while the enfeebled industries of the nation, denuded of their 
most vigorous workmen and laborers, pay the cost. There can 
be no end to this state of things until the nations of Europe test 
their respective improvements in the art of war and ascertain 
their relative strength. That test can only be made by the actual 
trial of war, which will surely come when the burdens of present 
conditions have grown beyond the endurance of the people. It 
is useless to combat the laws which govern the universe, and all 
that are within it, or to deny the existence of fixed conditions 
that are inseparable from the lot of humanity. The world and 
mankind will always move on in accordance with the original 
plan of creation. No man can change his being; he must al- 
ways remain a human being, subject to all the laws and condi- 
tions of humanity. War, when it is a condition inseparable from 
the lot of humanity, is right, and must be acquiesced in. War, 
that comes when nations are ripe for it, is as necessary for the 
purification and regeneration of human affairs as storms and 
tempests are for the restoration of salubrity to an unwholesome 
atmosphere. 



348 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 



CONSISTENT ADHERENCE TO DEMOCRATIC 
PRINCIPLES. 

Two Addresses by Mr. Bingham — The First as President of 
THE Democratic State Convention at Concord, May 20, 
1896. The Second as President op the "National" 
Democratic Ratification Meeting, at Manchester, Oc- 
tober 6, 1896. 

the concord address. 

Gentlemen of the Convention: 

It is with the greatest pleasure that today I meet the as- 
sembled representatives of the Democracy of New Hampshire. 
The grand old historical party, the Democratic party, has been 
resting for a season. Sentinels have slept on their posts, and 
leaders, perhaps for want of proper watching, have not always 
been true to their trusts. Dissensions have crept in. The 
enemy has improved its opportunities, and now, intoxicated with 
a little temporary success, is filling the land with its vain boast- 
ings. It is time for the united Democracy to wake up, uplift its 
invincible arm, and go forth once more to conquer. 

The war is over, and the last lingering efforts of faction to 
keep alive its animosities have ceased. The negro, having been 
elevated to citizenship and endowed with civil rights, upon 
equality with the white race, furnishes no longer food for mis- 
chievous and dangerous political agitation. Peace reigns. Con- 
stitutional limitations, heedlessly trampled upon in the reckless 
fury of armed conflict, have been vindicated, and their vitality 
restored. Tendencies towards the centralization of power in 
the federal government, by encroaching upon the reserved rights 
of the states have been arrested. The people are no longer 
threatened with force bills, and legislation kindred thereto has 
been repealed. All this has been accomplished by the Demo- 
cracy of the nation. Through its united action the perils con- 
sequent upon our desperate Civil War have been passed, and 



ADDRESSES. 349 

the country restored to its normal conditions. The political ques- 
tions that naturally engage the public attention in times of 
peace are now before us. Those questions are economic and 
financial questions. It is indispensable in order to secure the. 
prosperity of the country as a whole, and the welfare and hap- 
piness of the people individually, that there should be no unjust 
taxation, and that there should be a safe and reliable currency 
for the transaction of business. The expenses of the govern- 
ment economically administered, and the satisfaction of the na- 
tional indebtedness, are the only legitimate grounds for federal 
taxation. The business man, the salaried man, the wage-earner, 
and everybody who has occasion to purchase and sell, must 
have a reliable dollar of steadfast value. Otherwise they are 
subjected in their daily transactions to financial loss. Tariff 
taxation is legitimate only for the purpose of raising sufficient 
revenue to meet the necessary expenses and obligations of the 
government, and whenever this power is perverted and used so 
as to extort money from the masses and put it in the pockets of 
the few, robbery is committed, the general prosperity of the 
country is paralyzed, the few are made millionaires, but the 
masses are pinched and impoverished ; great interests, the main- 
tenance of which is of vital importance to the national welfare, 
languish and die out. Our prohibitory tariffs and kindred navi- 
gation laws have practically destroyed American shipping, and 
our flag that once floated on the breezes of every sea, and could 
be seen in all the ports of the world, is now a rare curiosity in 
foreign waters. We have ceased to educate our young men to a 
sailor's life, and the gallant American tars that in former days 
thronged our ports and manned our ships are gone, and have 
left no successors behind them. Our government is experien- 
cing infinite difficulty in obtaining seamen sufficient to handle 
the few war vessels that have been built as a beginning of a 
navy, which at last all have come to realize is essential to the 
national safety. 

A just system of taxation and a sound currency must be 
maintained. With those things made secure there will be na- 
tional prosperity. All legitimate industries will thrive, the 
laborer be content, the people happy, agriculture, manufactures, 



850 HARRY BiyOHAM MEMORIAL. 

and commerce will progress with equal steps and the country 
take on a steady growth of everj-thing that goes to build up and 
make a mighty nation. On the other hand let the currency be 
debased and fluctuating or let the hard earnings of the people 
be wrung from them by unjust taxation, in either case misery, 
discontent, and pinching poverty are sure to come on the masses, 
while their life-blood is being sucked up by the few who riot 
amid their country's ruins. 

The next National Democratic Convention will have a most 
solemn and trying duty to perform. Amid the wild va^ries 
upon economical and financial subjects that today are floating 
loose in the popular mind, a national Democratic platform must 
be erected, based upon Democratic principles, broad enough so 
that every true Democrat can stand upon it : plainly expressed, 
so that but one construction can be given it. Candidates for 
president and vice-president must be placed on that platform 
whose political lives and record are an embodiment of the prin- 
ciples therein set forth. There has been and is considerable 
agitation as to what should be put in that platform on the sub- 
jects of the currency and tariff taxation. We find that today 
the selfish few are seeking, as in the past they have always 
sought, special advantages for themselves at the expense of the 
great body of the people. The monopolist, manufacturing an 
article of public necessity and seeking to extort from the con- 
sumers thereof more than it is worth, applies to the government 
for a prohibitory tax on all importations of that article, and. hav- 
ing obtained it, he compels all consumers to pay for the thing he 
manufactures just what he pleases to demand, and this kind of 
legislation is styled by the advocates of monopoly "Protection 
to American industry."' The producers and owners of silver 
bullion ask the government to enact a law authorizing the free 
coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver 
to one ounce of gold. Such a law if enacted would give the 
owners of silver bullion for every sixteen dollars' worth of bul- 
lion thirty-one dollars in money with the government stamp 
upon it as such, with which to cheat and defraud the public. 
The monopolists, whose power to plunder the masses was much 
curtailed by the passage of the Wilson bill, and who are seeking 



ADDRESSES. 351 

the restoration of ^IcKinleyism and prohibitory tariff taxation, 
constitute the head and front of the hosts that are clamoring for 
the nomination of William McKinkley as the Republican candi- 
date for president and furnish the war material for the aggres- 
sive campaign now carried on in his behalf. 

The owners of silver mines and those who will be directly 
profited by disposing of silver for more than it is worth are the 
leading, pushing advocates for the free coinage of silver at the 
ratio of sixteen to one. The McKinleyite and the Free Silverite 
have a common purpose ; both are asking the government to aid 
them in robbing the people ; both abound in specious arguments 
for seducing the unwary, in unscrupulous promises and corrupt 
devices to enlist with them those who in that way may be thus 
enlisted. There is necessity for the watchman on the towers of 
Democracy to be on the alert now, as much as ever. We must 
remember that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Our 
arch enemies, now in this guise and now in that, are always seek- 
ing to undermine the strongholds of Democracy, encroach upon 
the rights of the people, and to break up the very foundation of 
the country's prosperity for the sake of promoting the interests 
of the few. We may safetly calculate that the McKinleyite and 
the Free Silverite having a common purpose will be found, when 
the final struggle comes, standing together and with their united 
strength mutually aiding each other to accomplish their respec- 
tive ends. Already overtures contemplating a combination of 
their powers have passed between them. There is but one course 
for the Democracy to pursue and that course is to stand un- 
flinchingly upon their principles: upon their principles as 
taught by their great teachers, by Jefferson, Madison, and Jack- 
son, and as hitherto acted upon. Circumstances and conditions 
are always changing, but principles never change. In applying 
unchanging principles to changing conditions care must be taken 
that a correct application is made. It is indispensably neces- 
sary for a nation 's welfare that legislation should so adapt itself 
to changed conditions that just taxation and a safe and reliable 
currency are always made secure. 

The Democracy of New Hampshire has a history of which 
we may well be proud. It has always presented a fearless front, 



352 HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 

and marched steadily forward with unbroken ranks, whether 
crowned with victory or loaded with defeat. Out of its ranks 
have come men who were illustrious leaders in the great national 
Democratic party. It can boast that a Langdon, a Woodbury, an 
Atherton, and a Pierce once trained in its ranks, God forbid 
that in the approaching presidential campaign any lack of wis- 
dom in counsel or energy in action should cast a shadow on the 
glorious memories of the past. It is not doubted that the good 
and true men whom today you appoint delegates to the National 
Democratic Convention will steadily insist upon a platform 
based upon sound Democratic doctrines. There are indications 
that unsound and dangerous theories in regard to the currency 
may be presented and urged in that convention. The enemies of 
the Democracy are tauntingly proclaiming to the world that we 
shall be compelled in the National Democratic Convention to 
adopt a platform favoring the free coinage of silver at the ratio 
of sixteen to one. The paralysis of all business, the ruin and 
bankruptcy that inevitably would follow the enactment of such 
a proposition into law are so palpable that all sane men who 
consider would instinctively oppose it. As our country is situ- 
ated with reference to the great commercial nations of the globe 
it is only mad men that can deliberately urge the free coinage of 
silver. The great body of our people are not mad. They never 
will vote for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen 
to one with the disastrous consequences of inaugurating such a 
measure plain to be foreseen. The incorporation of a free silver 
plank in the Democratic platform will insure in the coming presi- 
dential contest our certain defeat, and not only that, but the 
splendid record of the Democracy will be disgraced, its good 
name tarnished and the confidence hitherto reposed in it by the 
people greatly shaken, perhaps lost forever. It is hoped that 
no such calamity awaits us. 

The Democracy ought to triumph in the next presidential elec- 
tion. The welfare of the country demands it, and therefore let 
no such unwholesome and paralyzing plank as the free coinage 
of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one be inserted in our plat- 
form. Let our delegates from New Hampshire, let every other 
good and true Democrat watch, labor, argue, and pray for a 



ADDRESSES. 353 

platform based upon the principles of a genuine Democracy. 
The truth is mighty and if uttered with zeal and wisdom must 
conquer. It is believed that if all sincere and leved-headed 
Democrats with conciliation and firmness strive earnestly with 
our misguided brethren in the convention they will prevail, and 
the platform will be all right, and on it will be placed a can- 
didate who will be invincible. In the meantime let our watch- 
word be " a sound and reliable currency and no more McKinley- 
ism." 

The questions which are likely to be urged immediately upon 
the convention and there provoke hot debate relate to the cur- 
rency and tariff taxation, but there are other questions to be 
considered there which demand careful attention; among them 
are the questions in regard to our foreign relations. Our coun- 
try is the leading nation on the western continent and the guard- 
ianship of the affairs of that continent is a duty we cannot 
evade, and which we ought not to try to evade. Our duties are 
performed, our interests are subserved by promoting the welfare 
of the lesser republics of America. The many great and magnif- 
icent states that have been added to the Federal Union out of 
territory fairly acquired under and by Democratic administra- 
tions illustrate what the Democratic policy as to territorial ac- 
quisition has been in the past. The fruits of that policy are 
also thereby illustrated. Are there any reasons for a change 
of that policy ? Ought we to refuse a territorial acquisition that 
is begging to join us, that is desirable for us to have, and if it is 
accepted by us nobody will thereby be wronged ? 

Cuba, that beautiful island which lies so near our shores, is 
the theatre whereon is now raging a warfare carried on with 
barbarities that would shock a Comanche Indian and make him 
recoil therefrom. Is the fact that Cuba ought to be a part of 
the United States, and perhaps some day may be, any good rea- 
son why we should turn a deaf ear to the agonizing calls of its 
gallant, suffering, and outraged people? The requirements of 
International Law and good faith in the performance of treaties 
must be duly observed. So, too, the calls of humanity must be 
heeded, and when, under the pretence of waging civilized war- 
fare, neutral men, helpless women and children are barbarously 

23 



354 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

murdered, the hand of the murderer should be arrested and com- 
pelled to confine its work to legitimate war. Situated as our 
country is with Cuba, and its wrongs at our door and before our 
very eyes, our government should protest against these inhu- 
man butcheries in language not to be misunderstood, and if that 
protest be disregarded then the strong arm should intervene. 
We cannot do less than this and preserve our self-respect and 
be able to ask for ourselves the favorable consideration of the 
civilized world. Let the plank in the Democratic platform touch- 
ing our duties and obligations in respect to foregn affairs be 
grounded on a policy that fully recognizes all our duties and ob- 
ligations to both the oppressor and the oppressed and at the same 
time demands for ourselves what is necessary for the preserva- 
tion of our national self-respect. 



THE MANCHESTER ADDRESS, 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Recent events have threatened the great Democratic party of 
America with absolute annihilation as to everything except the 
mere name. The late convention of the Democracy, duly called 
and convened at Chicago, was invaded, stampeded, and con- 
trolled by its enemies, and the platform there adopted is in utter 
violation of Democratic principles as understood and acted upon 
since the foundation of the federal government ; but it is in ac- 
cordance with the ideas of the Populist, and so framed that it in- 
vites the support of the Anarchist, the Nihilist, and every other 
disorganizing element of society. Candidates were nominated 
and put upon that platform and pledged to its support. The 
usurpers dominating that convention turned their backs with 
scorn on Grover Cleveland, the only Democrat who has held the 
ofiSce of president since 1860, and insultingly refused to in- 
dorse his administration, although he has honestly and faith- 
fully administered the government in accordance with the plat- 
form on which he was elected — the Democratic platform of 
1892. 

The firm hand with which Grover Cleveland as president has 



ADDRESSES. 856 

kept faith with the Democracy, upheld, and still upholds, the 
honor and dignity of this great nation, will stand out in bold 
relief on the pages of the future historian, and his name will not 
there be dimmed, but will shine brighter by reason of the 
calumny and abuse that Altgeld and Tillman and kindred vili- 
fiers are now heaping upon him. 

In order that Democracy might live, and that Democrats who 
keep the faith might have a rallying point, another National 
Democratic Convention has been called, and holden at Indiana- 
polis on the second day of September last. That convention 
adopted a platform and nominated candidates. The platform 
is a clear, concise, but complete, statement of the fundamental 
principles of Democracy, and the candidates placed thereon — 
Gen. John M. Palmer of Illinois, for president, and Gen. Simon 
B. Buckner of Kentucky, for vice-president — are men whose 
records demonstrate that they are fit exponents of the platform. 

We are here today to ratify the work of the Indianapolis 
Convention. 

The necessity that demanded what has been done by this con- 
vention is obvious. 

Without its action there would be now no ticket in the field 
which a Democrat true to the principles of his party could sup- 
port. On the one hand would be the ticket and platform pre- 
sented by the Chicago Convention, with its Bryanism, Altgeld- 
ism, and Tillmanism masquerading in Democratic uniform, and 
on the other hand the Republican ticket and platform, with a 
plank in favor of sound money and a presidential candidate 
whose views on the financial question may be all right now, but 
were for a long time in doubt by reason of his antecedents and 
his silence. Aside from its present position on the money ques- 
tion, the Republican party is and always has been opposed to 
Jeffersonian Democracy. It is and always has been for high 
protective tariffs, for force bills, and for despotic measures that 
centralize power and encroach on the reserved rights of the 
states and the people. Democrats, who have drank at the foun- 
tain heads of Democracy, and who know and love Democratic 
principles, can never support either of these tickets. To them 
the grand candidates nominated at Indianapolis, and the great 



356 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Democratic truths set forth in the platform there adopted, are 
most welcome. Standing on that glorious platform they are 
themselves again. Once more with vigor they can assail Mc- 
Kinley tariffs and the centralizing tendencies of the Republican 
party, and, at the same time, be free to denounce the heresies 
of the Chicago platform. Ever since the commencement of the 
War of the Rebellion, protective tariffs, more or less burden- 
some, have oppressed the country, and have compelled the mas- 
ses of our people to pay high for what they bought, while they 
could sell their products only at a low figure. As a consequence 
they have been growing poorer and poorer, until selfish and 
interested persons have been able to persuade them into the be- 
lief that cheap money will furnish them the means of paying 
their debts and restore prosperity to them and the country. It 
is certain that a large share of the work that has created the con- 
ditions which have made this cheap money craze possible, has 
been done by protective tariffs. 

If the presidential candidate of the Chicago Convention be 
elected, and the financial plank of its platform be carried out, 
our currency must go at once to a silver basis. Gold will dis- 
appear from circulation. We shall be loaded with all the dis- 
grace that can follow the outright repudiation of nearly one 
half of all our debts, both public and private. Such a radical 
change must create panics and disorders of infinite magnitude. 
The state of affairs that will then exist, to be realized must be 
seen. "We shall have no credit abroad, and at home capital will 
seek a hiding place. Values will be unsettled and constantly 
fluctuating. Nothing will be certain. Speculation and fraud 
wiU be rife, and the honest and unwary will be at the mercy 
of the shrewd and unscrupulous. 

And when at last the shock of the great change has spent it- 
self, and the business elements have settled down and adapted 
themselves to the new conditions, we shall find ourselves on a 
silver basis, and side by side with Mexico and China, whilst all 
the great commercial nations of the world abide by the gold 
standard, leaving us in our intercourse with them to all the dis- 
advantages which our folly may have brought upon us. The 
presidential candidate of the Chicago Convention, Mr. Bryan, is 



ADDRESSES. 357 

now on his travels through the country, scattering his oratory 
in profusion everywhere. He deals in all the tropes and meta- 
phors known to rhetoric, and is master of the oratorical art. 
Enraptured with the melodious sounds of his own voice, and 
the great applause and flattering adulations of the admiring 
crowds that follow him, he soars on the wings of his imagina- 
tion high above the dull, prosy regions of cold facts and hard 
reasoning. The vivid pictures painted by Mr. Bryan's exuber- 
ant fancy of the overflowing abundance that will bless this 
country, if he is elected president, has no counterpart save in 
fairy tales. With infinite assurance, he makes assertions that 
cannot be true, unless all the experiences of mankind in the 
past, and our own common sense, are both utterly at fault. For 
instance, he asserts that with the silver market of the world 
overstocked, and the present vast production of silver susceptible 
of indefinite future augmentation at small cost, with silver 
demonetized by all the great commercial nations on the globe 
and by many of the lesser commercial nations, and with Russia 
and Japan about to demonetize it, the United States govern- 
ment alone, by a simple fiat decreeing the free coinage of sil- 
ver, can double its value everywhere all over the world and 
bring it to parity with gold at the ratio of sixteen to one, and 
that, at the same time and by reason of the same fiat, values of 
labor, of all production, of all commodities, and of every kind 
of property, will also be doubled. 

Nothing like this is recorded as ever having actually occurred 
in the historic experience of mankind. On the contrary, the 
history of every age has pages that record the wrecks, disasters, 
bankruptcy, poverty, and crime, which have been caused by 
fiat money. It is certainly to be hoped that we are now suffi- 
ciently enlightened so that we will heed the warnings of the past 
and not, with our eyes open, deliberately repeat its follies. The 
sad experience of France in the destitution and distress occa- 
sioned by the Mississippi scheme of John Law, culminating in 
the year 1720, and in the infinitely greater ruin and suffering 
brought upon her by the fiat money, called assignats, issued 
under the leadership of Marat, Danton, and Robespierre, in 
the wild fury of her bloody revolution, taught her a lesson — 



358 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

yea, burned into her, as it were, with a red-hot iron — a terrible 
lesson which she has remembered unto this day. As a conse- 
quence, France has maintained with great watchfulness ever 
since, and for nearly a hundred years last past, a sound money 
currency, and now the masses of her people, her laborers, me- 
chanics, and peasantry, are richer and have more money than 
the corresponding masses and classes of any other country in 
the world. "We, too, short as has been the period of our national 
existence, have had lessons on this subject that none of our peo- 
ple who can consider, will ever forget. In the War of Inde- 
pendence our fathers issued fiat money, called at the time con- 
tinental bills of credit, and enforced, or attempted to enforce, 
its circulation by legal-tender and penal enactments. Every- 
thing arose to an enormous price. Issue after issue of this 
money was made, while its credit continued constantly to de- 
preciate, until it took $500 to pay for a meal of victuals. The 
whole business was then abandoned, leaving the worthless bills 
mostly in the hands of the soldiers and the poor. The rich gen- 
erally took the precaution, while it was yet current, to invest 
what came to their hands in property of permanent value. The 
wrong, the injustice and the suffering wrought by continental 
money was incalculable. Speaking of it, a close observer, living 
in those times, says: "Continental money did more than the 
arts and arms of the enemy towards demoralizing the people and 
paralyzing every effort of the brave and patriotic." Independ- 
ence was won after the overthrow of continental money, and 
on a specie basis. Our later experience with the legal-tender 
greenbacks has been a sorry one. Our financial trouble at the 
present time, and since the "War of the Rebellion, can be traced 
fairly to the legal-tender greenbacks issued under the assumed 
exigencies of that war. A competent financier after a careful 
calculation says: "The greenback issue made the cost of the 
war to the government upwards of a billion of dollars more 
than it would have been if the finances had remained on a 
specie basis ; and in addition to the loss inflicted on the govern- 
ment, a still greater loss was inflicted on the people. The infla- 
tion of the currency caused by the greenback issues inflicted on 
the people a loss of several billions of dollars, by giving to 



ADDRESSES. 359 

everything a false value and stimulating speculation, extrava- 
gance, and injudicious investments without limit." 

But, without the aid derived from a study of the past, the com- 
mon sense of every individual ought to be able to reject these 
absurd statements of what free silver will do if established, as 
the mere dreams of reckless dreamers. 

The magical power ascribed to the free coinage of silver by 
the Silverite sounds in rational ears like the fancy-woven tales 
of eastern story-tellers, about vast riches and untold treasures 
showered on favored mortals by beings who do their work out- 
side of, and beyond, the ken of humanity. 

The wealth created by Aladdin's lamp was trifling when com- 
pared with the immense riches, which, it is alleged, the mere 
enactment of a few words into law by the United States would 
create. The idea of the candidate, Bryan, that the mere fiat 
of the United States can create instantaneously such a vast 
addition to the wealth of nations, goes far beyond everything 
that Munchausen himself ever wrote. One of the stock argu- 
ments with which Mr. Bryan maintains the free silver cause, is 
an appeal to our hereditary reluctance to be domineered over in 
any respect by England. On the eve of a presidential election 
stump speakers never forget to stir up the hatred which our peo- 
ple have for English arrogance. If no reason for indignation 
exists a reason is invented. Mr. Bryan talks so much that he 
can't wait for an idea to germinate, grow, and mature in his 
brain before he fires it off. In speeches uttered in that manner it 
would not be reasonable to expect consistency, sound logic, or 
accuracy. At one time while urging the immediate adoption of 
free coinage by this country, he tells us that "England and the 
gold countries of Europe are longing and praying for free 
coinage, and are only waiting for us to lead off." At another 
time, while denouncing those who propose to obtain free coinage 
by international agreement, he says, "No such agreement can 
be made, — the men making that proposition are not honest; 
they know that England and the gold countries of Europe never 
will agree to the free coinage of silver. ' ' 

Mr. Bryan, however, seldom ceases to twist the caudal ex- 
tremity of the British lion. He taunts us with being afraid of 



360 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

England and not daring to remonetize silver without the leave 
of Lombard Street. He tells us that a hundred years ago, our 
fathers won from Great Britain with the sword, political inde- 
pendence, — that now we are a great, rich, and mighty people, 
able to have a monetary system of our own, able to bid Great 
Britain defiance, and tear off the financial shackles that Eng- 
lish greed has fastened upon us. He exhorts us to declare our 
monetary independence and to coin such money and as much of 
it as we please, and let England help herself if she can. We 
have whipped her twice and can do it again. In replying to this 
argument we must admit that America is a great, rich, and 
powerful nation ; that she already has had two wars with Great 
Britain with results honorable to her arms, and that if in the 
providence of God, she finds herself involved again in war with 
England, we do not doubt that she will do her duty with all the 
vigor and resolution displayed by our fathers in former wars; 
but before we engage in a third war with England let us pay 
her all the debts honestly due her in good money. Although we 
are a great, rich, and powerful nation there are some things 
we can't afford. 

We can't afford to be mean; we can't afford to incur lasting 
ignominy and disgrace for the sake of cheating England out of 
her honest dues by paying her in bad money. Earthly powers 
and human governments are bounded by limitations outside of 
which their commands are inoperative. Notwithstanding the 
might, power, and riches of America, she cannot, by repealing 
the laws of nature, change the appointed time for sunrise and 
sunset, nor make something out of nothing. Her fiat ordering 
either of these things to be done would be inoperative. So, too, 
her fiat sayings to a piece of metal worth fifty cents only, **go 
forth into the world and wheresoever thou goest let thy value 
no longer be limited to fifty cents, but henceforth by virtue of 
thy own intrinsic worth only, be thou of the value of one hun- 
dred cents," would be inoperative, and the value of the metal 
would remain unchanged. It would still be worth fifty cents 
and no more. Argument addressed to credulity capable of be- 
lieving that such a fiat could create value would be lost. 

Mr, Bryan betrays a self-consciousness that his financial theo- 



ADDRESSES. 361 

ries are unsound, and that their fallacy will be exposed if sub- 
mitted to men who have had experience in financial matters. 
He tells his hearers, after setting forth his financial dogmas, to 
study the subject (evidently meaning that they should read 
Coin's Financial School and kindred works) and to shun all 
advice from financiers and make up their minds on their own 
unaided judgment and act accordingly. But he does not content 
himself with picturing to the popular eye the vast wealth the 
world will acquire if he is elected president. He travels on more 
dangerous ground where greater harm may be done. He strives 
to array class against class, and especially to stir up those who 
have not, against those who have. Such a strife is irrational and 
can do no good and may do great injury. Many- a rich man of 
today was a poor man of yesterday, and rich men of today may 
be poor tomorrow. We have no aristocracy, no titled classes, 
and all are equal before the law. We are all, whether rich or 
poor, common people, and a good dollar is just as good and a 
bad dollar is just as bad, for one as the other. The talk about 
one kind of dollar for the poor man and another kind for the 
rich man, is the grossest nonsense, and can mean nothing but 
mischief. The man that indulges in such talk is no statesman ; 
he is nothing but a demagogue. 

But after all it is not the financial plank in the Chicago plat- 
form that gives the worst shock to the nerves of the man who 
desires to see the fundamental safeguards of our institutions 
unassailed. That platform threatens the independence of the 
judiciary, the very rock on which our liberties rest. Let the 
judiciary become subservient to the tyrant's will or to popular 
clamor, and liberty is lost. That platform denounces the per- 
formance by the federal government of its plain constitutional 
duty to protect the transportation of the mails and to keep open 
the pathways of interstate commerce. That platform profes- 
sing to deprecate centralization demands that the federal gov- 
renment shall usurp power and enact a force bill that would 
trample the rights of the states and the people underfoot, and 
centralize power to an extent far beyond anything that Repub- 
licanism ever dreamed of in its wildest moods. It demands that 
the currency be debased and made a legal tender, and that who- 



362 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Palmer and Buckner, men whose lives and records demonstrate 
such debased currency. It is evident that the framers of the 
Chicago platform cared very little about the rights of the peo- 
ple or the powers of the state and federal governments under 
the Constitution. They put into the platform just such planks 
as were necessary to consummate a permanent alliance and ulti- 
mate consolidation with Populism and kindred organizations, 
and enable them to court the support of all combinations that 
do not hesitate to use violence to attain their ends, and of all the 
discontented, unrestful, and desperate, who are held in order 
only by the restraints of law. Mr. Bryan has attended to the 
work laid out for him in the platform, and has secured his nomi- 
nation by the Populists, the middle of the road Populists and 
the Silver party. "When the majority that dominated the Chi- 
cago Convention is judged by the platform they adopted, and 
the character of their allies and supporters is considered, and 
when it is realized that the views of that majority, their allies 
and supporters, are the views of Mr. Bryan, and are the views 
which, if he is elected, will control the administration of this 
government for four years, enough and more than enough ap- 
pears to cause every right minded Democrat to turn with dis- 
gust from any idea of supporting a candidate, whose election 
would inflict upon the country such an administration. If 
Bryan is elected or if he is not elected there can be no doubt 
that those who support him will find themselves when this cam- 
paign is over in a consolidated party controlled by the principles 
of the Populists and led by Bryan, Altgeld, and Tillman. It is 
wholly immaterial what name that party may bear. It can have 
nothing in common with the Democracy. Populism and Demo- 
cracy are entirely unlike. Their principles stand out in direct 
opposition to each other. The Populist demands that the gov- 
ernment be revolutionized and be made a centralized paternal 
institution. He demands that the government shall own all the 
railroads and telegraph lines, advance money on crops, pay his 
mortgage, and, in short, wipe out his individuality and relieve 
him from the responsibility of taking care of himself by caring 
for him as a father cares for his child. 

On the other hand the Democrat demands that the Constitu- 



ADDRESSES. 363 

tion shall be maintained as it is; that there shall not be any 
centralization of power; that the government shall be admin- 
istered as Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson administered it; that 
it shall protect him in the enjoyment of his inalienable rights, 
his right to life, liberty, and the acquisition of property ; that it 
shall leave him to take care of himself, to stand up in his ovm 
individual right as God made him, free, independent, and self- 
reliant, with full liberty to go and come as he pleases, to pursue 
happiness along the ways of his choice, and to possess and en- 
joy the fruits of his labors, always provided that he shall not 
trespass on his neighbor. The Democrat who is swept along into 
the consolidated party that the present supporters of Bryan will 
hereafter form will then find himself no longer a Democrat, but 
a Populist. Those Democrats of New Hampshire who no longer 
ago than last May, in a Democratic State Convention duly as- 
sembled, joined with perfect accord in declaring allegiance to 
Democracy and sound money, and who since have changed to the 
support of Populism and a debased currency, must have seen 
and learned enough now to make them feel that they are where 
they do not wish to remain. Such a sudden and radical change 
in popular sentiment is appalling, and leads to doubt as to the 
stability of institutions upheld by the popular will. We under- 
stand, however, there is a reason for it and that no such un- 
expected change of attitude in reference to principles where 
there was no possible chance for a corresponding change in 
actual belief and conviction could have occurred without a cause. 
Honest Democrats indorsed the platform and nominees of the 
Chicago Convention when its work was first promulgated be- 
cause they trusted that convention as the regular Democratic 
body authorized to declare the principles of Democracy and 
name its candidates ; but now, when it is demonstrated that their 
trust was betrayed, and that if they continue to support the 
work of that convention they bid good-bye to Democracy and go 
straight to the Populist camp, they must, as honest Democrats, 
look elsewhere for Democracy. They cannot go to McKinley, 
for Democracy is opposed to what he represents. They must go 
to the work of the Indianapolis Convention. They will find 
there a Democratic platform, and for candidates they will find 



364 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Palmer and Buekner, men whose lives and records demonstrate 
that into their hands the Democracy can commit with safety 
the great trust of administering this government. Let the pres- 
ent campaign terminate as it may, the Democrat who votes for 
Palmer and Buekner may be sure that he votes for men who 
ought to be elected and that he is helping to form the nucleus 
around which four years hence the Democratic hosts can rally 
and by restoring Democracy to power give to the country once 
more the blessings of a Democratic administration. 



THE NEW EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 

Address Delivered Before the Grafton and Coos Bar Associa- 
tion AT Plymouth, N. H., January 29, 1897. 

Gentlemen of the Association : 

We meet today on the fourteenth anniversary of our Associa- 
tion. We meet under circumstances which augur that our pres- 
ent meeting will be a fortunate one. I welcome you here and 
congratulate you that we are thus well met. 

The first thing in order is an address by myself and I suppose 
something in the form of a written essay is expected, but I am 
not able to furnish it. I have a subject, however, that I have 
considered somewhat, and upon which I have intended to elab- 
orate a written essay, but the pressure of other matters and a 
constitutional reluctance to overwork myself have prevented me 
from so doing. 

I will state the subject I intended to discuss, the points I in- 
tended to make, and the grounds upon which I expected to sup- 
port these points. This contemplated subject may be defined by 
an inquiry in these words, "What effect will the advent of the 
'new woman' have upon the future of mankind?" I use the 
term, "new woman," in a good sense. I do not mean by it the 
stormy virago who denounces man as her oppressor, and an- 
nounces that the women are going to discard their old tyrants 
and run things by themselves. If the vociferous band of female 



ADDRESSES. 365 

iconoclasts execute their threats and entirely cut themselves 
loose from the men, the time will be limited in which they can 
make trouble. Soon their lives will be spent and they can leave 
nobody behind them to fill their places. 

I refer to the women who are quietly and industriously avail- 
ing themselves of the advantages that recently have been thrown 
open to them. The rights and responsibilities of married women 
have been especially enlarged, and generally the ways have been 
multiplied and broadened in which female influence can operate 
upon society. Women can engage, if they choose, in numerous 
employments from which they were formerly debarred. Even 
the learned professions have been opened for them more or less 
generally, and we have female doctors, preachers, and lawyers. 
The grand advance, however, that has been made in behalf of 
women is the movement which opened to them all the doors of 
education. 

That movement must improve the race and greatly accelerate 
human progress. The physical, intellectual, moral, and religious 
training of women is to be as thorough as that of men. Litera- 
ture, science, all branches of learning, are open to both sexes 
alike; both sexes are taught in the same instiutions, or in insti- 
tutions of the same grade. What I refer to as the new woman 
is the woman that is being developed by the progress of the 
age ; a progress of the race, of the same character as the progress 
that man has been making all along since he emerged from 
barbarism; a progress which profits the race, one sex as well as 
the other. 

Evolutionary changes affecting the physical, intellectual, 
moral, and religious condition of mankind have succeeded one 
another constantly ever since the world began. As a result of 
these changes there has been progress. The discovery of the 
laws by which health is secured, pestilence averted, and disease 
successfully combatted have made it possible to establish sani- 
tary regulations and modes of physical training that have done a 
great work in saving and prolonging human life, and in develop- 
ing the stature and muscular power of the human body. Good 
illustrations of the progress that has been made in physical con- 
ditions may be seen in the limitations which have been placed 



366 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

upon the spread of deadly plagues and diseases, that formerly, 
at recurring intervals, swept over the earth, scattering death and 
desolation in their paths; in the years that have been added to 
the length of a human generation, and in the superior stature 
and increased muscular development of the girls educated at 
our institutions, recently established, above their mothers. The 
intellectual condition of the world has in like manner improved. 

Art, literature, and science have progressed. Enlightenment,, 
culture, and refinement prevail where once were ignorance, bar- 
barism, and brutality. Man has subdued, or at least partially 
subdued, some of the powers of nature, and so far made them 
subservant to his will that he has accomplished thereby wonder- 
ful results. He has put steam under the yoke and has thus 
secured an immense power for accelerating the march of human 
improvement. He has obtained such dominion over the tre- 
mendous potency of electricity that the brain grows dizzy as it 
contemplates what his further intellectual developments may ac- 
complish. 

Modern morality stands far in advance of the morality of the 
olden time. Numberless superstitions, which in former ages 
darkened the understandings of men and degraded them al- 
most to a level with the beasts that perish, have vanished before 
the light of modern civilization. 

The progress that has been made in developing the moral 
sense of mankind is demonstrated by the changed social posi- 
tion of woman. Formerly she was a mere slave, doomed to a 
life of ignorance and servile drudgery; now she is educated, is 
the equal of man, and clothed with all the rights, responsibili- 
ties, and duties that naturally appertain to her in organized so- 
ciety. The emancipation and elevation of the negro from his 
degraded condition furnishes another instance that shows the 
moral progress that the world has made. A little more than two 
hundred years ago it was not considered * * that the negro had any 
rights that a white man was bound to respect ; ' ' now he is a man, 
a brother, on equality with the white man. The many salutary 
reforms that have been inaugurated and are constantly being in- 
augurated for the salvation of wayward humanity from the 
horrors of intemperance and vice in all its forms, prove that man- 



ADDRESSES. 367 

kind have been and are steadily acquiring clearer and stronger 
apprehension of their moral obligations. 

As a religious being man has progressed far beyond what he 
was in the childhood of the race. The contrast between religious 
thought and worship as they are today and as they were in the 
early ages of the world, presents in a strong light the grand 
advance that man has made. The crude religious ideas that char- 
acterized primitive humanity grew into better form as time went 
on, and developed from phase to phase, so that when the gospel 
of Jesus Christ arrived the whole world was illuminated. The 
forward and upward movement of mankind to a more elevated 
and better plane has been accelerated by a more intelligent and 
consistent perception of the Deity in a far greater degree than 
by all other causes combined. 

Many bootless discussions have been held among the learned 
and the unlearned upon the question whether man or woman 
exercises the greater sway over human affairs. This question has 
been a live question in village debating societies and in institu- 
tions of higher pretensions. There can be no answer to it. As 
well ask, which force does the more essential service in carrying 
the planets around the sun, the centripetal or the centrifugal? 
Or ask, which of two pillars, each equally necessary with the 
other for the support of a structure resting on them only, con- 
tributes more than the other to upholding the structure ? 

In the beginning God ordained the relations between man and 
woman. He made each dependent on the other, and one the com- 
plement of the other. He made each a part of one whole. To- 
gether they constitute the human race. All human experience 
demonstrates how vain it is to kick against the ordinances of 
God's providence. Together man and woman came into the 
world ; together they live in it and do their appointed work, and 
together they must make their final exit on the day when hu- 
manity shall cease to exist. Man and woman have been en- 
dowed with different faculties and powers, corresponding to the 
different parts assigned them in the plan of creation. The two 
sexes, when both are normally developed, exhibit characters dif- 
fering in all respects. Physically man is the stronger, but 
woman has the more delicate touch. She is so organized that 



368 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

she will thrill with emotion on occasions when his coarser and less 
susceptible nerves are unaffected. The intellectual and moral 
powers of the two sexes, which they have in common, are dis- 
tributed between them in such proportions that as it respects 
those powers their characters differ. Woman upon a given sub- 
ject intuitively reaches a conclusion entirely satisfactory to her- 
self with great promptness, while man upon the same subject 
will take time to consider, and will be quite likely to be in great 
doubt when his final decision is rendered. 

The sublime truths of religion impress themselves upon both 
the feminine and the masculine mind, but the impressions thus 
made are manifested by the two sexes differently. The religious 
emotions of the devout woman seem to control her whole being 
and she gives herself away to them with apparent gladness. On 
the other hand, man, however devout and sincere he may be, sel- 
dom loses his self-control by reason of religious excitement, but 
while fully realizing his duties and obligations to the Supreme 
Being, and firmly resolved to fulfill them, ordinarily he will re- 
main calm and composed. 

It thus appears that man and woman are indissolubly linked 
together for weal or woe, whichever it may be; with different 
powers, but each fulfilling what is lacking in the other, and that 
with equal responsibility they have resting upon them jointly the 
duty of maintaining and improving the human race. It follows 
that the thorough development of the peculiar powers and gifts 
of both sexes with equal care is the way that leads to the highest 
possible elevation of humanity, while any system of training that 
elevates one sex and degrades the other destroys the natural equi- 
librium between their respective powers and influence, and in- 
evitably must push mankind on a downward career. Adam and 
Eve were created and placed together in the garden of Eden. To- 
gether they sinned, and together they suffered the punishment of 
their transgression. Our first parents, participating with each 
other in all the joys and sorrows, the rewards and punishments 
that fell to their lot, lived, did their work, and died. In like man- 
ner in each of the successive generations of their posterity down 
to the present time, man and woman sharing together the woes 
and blessings of human life, have lived, wrought, and passed 
away. 



ADDRESSES. 369 

In every age and every country, man and woman have never 
failed to be jointly imbued with the temper, spirit, and sen- 
timent of the times. When crime is rampant and every breeze is 
loaded with sin, the assassin's dagger may gleam, or the cup of 
poison be held with murderous intent in the hands of one sex as 
well as the other; but when virtue rules the hour, heroes and 
heroines spring up on all sides and are ready to do and to dare in. 
behalf of the right. 

At such an hour, if the call of God or of country is heard, man 
and woman both will be found obeying that call and bidding de- 
fiance to dungeons and gibbets, the cannon's mouth, and the 
martyr's block. It has been asserted that in primitive times man 
was a barbarian, and woman was enslaved and made the mere 
drudge of her imperious master, and that as society progressed, 
the condition of woman improved until finally civilization placed 
the sexes upon equality. This statement does not present the 
situation fairly as it has been in the world. When man was a 
barbarian and a brute, woman also was a barbarian and a 
brute. When improvement and civilization came, it was the im- 
provement and civilization of the race of man and of woman, each 
progressing with equal steps. Each sex was created the counter- 
part of the other, has remained the counterpart of the other 
through all the changes that time has wrought. Man and woman, 
when barbarians and brutes, admired and appreciated each other 
the same as civilized man and woman admire and appreciate 
each other. The bonds by which nature has linked the sexes to- 
gether are equally strong at every stage of human progress. At 
the very beginning of humanity in the garden of Eden, it ap- 
pears that man and woman were equally potential, and both con- 
curred in those acts that brought upon themselves and their 
posterity a common punishment. Times have changed and will 
continue to change, but the influence and control that nature has 
given each sex over the other has not changed and never will. 
The two sexes exemplify, each in an equal degree, the virtues that 
adorn and the vices that degrade humanity. 

It is seldom, if ever, that a great crime is committed or a 
great work of beneficence accomplished by either sex without 
the aid and concurrence of the other. The fixed character of the 

24 



370 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

power that the sexes exercise over each other is illustrated by the 
history of the world in every age. Woman as well as man at all 
stages of human progress, from the most abject barbarism to 
the highest civilization, has pushed herself or been pushed to the 
front, and has been made the governing power. Her part in 
such work has been characterized by management as adroit, by 
cruelties as flagrant, and by a will as unyielding as man ever 
manifested in the accomplishment of his purposes. She has ex- 
hibited virtue in its loftiest elevation and vice in its worst form. 
She did it in the early ages as well as in more modern times. 

In the most ancient history, outside of the Sacred Scriptures, 
it is recorded that Semiramis, the queen of Ninus, king of 
Assyria, having by the joint use of stratagem and force deposed 
and put to death her husband, assumed the reins of government 
over his realm, subjugated the surrounding nations, successfully 
invaded India, founded the great city of Babylon, erected many 
famous monuments, and constructed magnificent roads, bridges, 
and canals all over her vast empire. 

The soldiers of ancient Sparta were indomitable in war, because 
their wives and mothers shared equally with them in self-sacrifice 
and devotion to the glory and honor of the commonwealth. 

The ancient Britons, in resisting Roman invasion, were ably 
led by their queen Bbadicea, and after fighting long and bravely 
were overcome at last, not by superior valor but by the discipline 
and scientific warfare of the veteran legions of Rome. 

Tacitus in his history, descriptive of the manners and customs 
of the German tribes in the days of their barbarism, says it was 
their custom on important occasions involving the general welfare 
to summon the women to take part in consultation, and to vote on 
the measures proposed for adoption. In modern times women 
have been potential in good works and in bad works. "When Spain 
undertook to crush the liberties of Holland by a cruel and deso- 
lating war of subjugation, the Dutch women took the places of 
their fallen husbands, fathers, and brothers in the trenches and 
on the ramparts of their towns and cities, and did valiant service 
in repelling the foe. 

In France, Catherine de Medici with the malice of a fiend plot- 
ted, urged on, and consummated the horrible massacre of St. 



ADDRESSES. 371 

Bartholomew. The career of Catherine II of Russia demon- 
states that a female sovereign can rule successfully a vast and 
turbulent empire, and through a long reign with a steady hand 
maintain good order. It also demonstrates that woman as well 
as man, when high in authority, may fall into depravity, immor- 
ality, and gross sensuality. 

In very recent times, we have the example of Queen Victoria, 
an example creditable not only to woman but to humanity. Dur- 
ing a long reign not yet ended, over one of the most powerful and 
enlightened nations of the earth, she has been in her station a 
pattern of domestic virtue for all the world. With good sense 
and admirable self-control, she has kept herself uniformly within 
the limits of her duties, and within those limits has done her 
proper work with sound judgment, firmness, and fidelity. If the 
history of all the royal potentates of both sexes that the world 
has seen was studied carefully, it is doubtful about finding an- 
other one who, considered in all respects, has done as well as 
Queen Victoria. It is certain that woman as well as man has 
got the capacity to govern. Her government like his may be 
strong or weak, just or unjust, virtuous or depraved, righteous 
or wicked; but the respective excellencies and infirmities of mas- 
culine and feminine government will correspond to the respec- 
tive peculiarities of the masculine and feminine character. 

The position of woman, in reference to her children, gives her 
a momentous power over the destiny of the human race. If her 
influence over her children be a good influence, it will be a mighty 
force to uplift and improve humanity; but if it be a bad in- 
fluence, it will be equally potential for the degradation of hu- 
manity. It is pretty safe to assert the proposition that there 
never was a good man who did not have a good mother, or a bad 
man who did not have either a bad or a weak mother. This coun- 
try is greatly indebted to Mary, the mother of Washington, for 
bearing and rearing such a son as George Washington. Honors 
too great cannot be paid to her. The monument recently erected 
to her memory is not only a thing done in good taste, but is a 
just tribute tardily paid to her great merit. 

Nero, a Roman emperor whose vile and cruel rule made his 
name a synonym for outrageous tyranny and wickedness, had a 



372 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

bad mother. She was bad in the superlative degree, and as a conse- 
quence her son, whom she reared and trained, was when given 
imperial power the worst of tyrants. A fearful retribution, how- 
ever, overtook her for transmitting to her son and developing in 
him her own vicious qualities. When by the means of his 
mother's crimes and wicked intrigues Nero was made emperor, 
he put her to an ignominious death, not as a punishment for her 
criminal conduct, but from mere caprice and in gratification of 
his innate propensity towards evil. 

In ancient times and in modem times, woman has been always 
potential, and it is certain that whatever of good or evil there is 
in this world, or ever was, or ever will be, she has been, is, and 
always will be entitled to be credited as contributing her full 
share. The two sexes have the threads of their respective des- 
tinies so interwoven by the everlasting fiat of nature that one 
cannot rise or fall without a corresponding elevation or depres- 
sion of the other. "Whatever improves one sex to the same extent 
improves the other sex, and to the same extent promotes human 
progress. 

In the light of the fixed and unchangeable relations that nature 
has ordained between the sexes, we can argue with some satisfac- 
tion in regard to the consequences which will follow the new 
movement in behalf of woman. 

This movement is going on all over the civilized world. It is 
here. It is in Great Britain, France, and Germany. Even 
Turkey, weighed down by the fanaticism of non-progressive Islam 
and still darkened by the shadows of barbarism, is affected by the 
movement, and has begun to establish schools for female educa- 
tion. This movement, which thus seems to be taking on a world- 
wide character, is a fact, and according to our contention it means 
that the human race is about to take a long step in advance. So 
far as this apparent general movement in favor of better train- 
ing, a higher education, and a broader field of employment for 
women is concerned, it is not promoted but rather retarded and 
exposed to ridicule by reason of the farcical performances of 
those women who unsex themselves, put on masculine attire, 
scream about the tyrant man, and put themselves forward as 
candidates for office. This class of women are really of no 



ADDRESSES. 373 

account, mere fire-flies, eccentricities, dancing on the foreground, 
who, accomplishing nothing, when their brief hour is spent will 
pass away and be forgotten. The friends of humanity are 
anxious that the present onward march of human improvement 
should continue at an accelerated pace with no step backward. 

It is apparent from what we have already shown that the 
character of a people is identical with the character of their 
women, and that any people can improve themselves by improv- 
ing their women. There is no surer test of the character of a 
nation, and no better indicator of its future, than what is 
afforded by a careful study of its women. The nation that can 
show its women to be virtuous and industrious furnishes con- 
clusive evidence that its men are brave and strong, invincible in 
war, enterprising and progressive in peace, and that its future is 
bright and promising. On the other hand, proof that the women 
of a nation are depraved and idle is also proof that its men 
are cowardly and weak, and that its final dissolution is not far 
off. The new education for woman contemplates her improve- 
ment physically, intellectually, morally, and religiously. Her 
physical training will give her health and strength, and at the 
same time she will get knowledge of the sanitary laws that secure 
health and strength. Her constitution thus strengthened and 
invigorated and made secure by her knowledge of the way to pre- 
serve it, will enable her to do effectually all the work which 
nature has ordained that she should do. She will be endowed 
with strength to bear children that are healthy and strong, and 
to perform with cheerfulness and pleasure all the multitudinous 
duties which devolve upon a mother. Her knowledge of sanitary 
laws will enable her to rear her children and keep them strong 
and healthy, and also so to train them that they will form 
wholesome habits and learn how to take care of themselves. 

The end sought to be accomplished for woman by her higher 
education, is the complete and harmonious development of all 
her powers. It is expected that when her education is finished, 
she will still be a woman. The ideal sought to be realized is not 
a perfect man, but a perfect woman, or at least a woman as near 
perfection "as the lot of humanity will admit." The physical 
training that gives to the female student health, will enable her 



374 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

at the same time to receive with pleasure and profit, intellectual, 
moral, and religious training, and thus all her powers con- 
temporaneously will be developed and disciplined. No argument 
is necessary to satisfy an Intelligent mind that a generation bom 
of mothers thus educated will progress by leaps and bounds, in 
light and knowledge, in wisdom and goodness. 

It will be an epoch in the history of the world when this 
higher education for woman is fully inaugurated and per- 
manently established. It will mark the point of time when 
retrograding and zigzagging in human progress ceased. From 
and after that epoch, the march of human progress will be 
onward without halting into the unexplored and unlimited 
regions of knowledge that lie within reach, of human power, 
steadily and wisely exercised. A halo of light will encircle those 
generations whose sons and daughters are bom of these highly 
educated mothers. The women of those generations will be wise, 
beautiful, and lovely beyond conception, and the men will stand 
up, as man was created in the image of his maker, strong, valiant, 
and God-like. 

Children that are vigorous at birth, that are nurtured in the 
arms of healthy, intellectual, moral, and religious mothers, and 
watched over by those mothers in childhood and youth, will be 
sure to grow up with sound minds in sound bodies, and with the 
moral and religious sense that will cause them to shun evil and 
seek the right, to fear the Lord and keep his commandments. 

It has been suggested that it is dangerous for woman to know 
too much ; that if she be thoroughly educated she will be discon- 
tented with her lot and spend her strength in useless kicks 
against the part assigned her in the plan of creation. There are 
no grounds for this suggestion. It rests on a false assumption. 
Accurate knowledge and a thorough general education do not 
tend to create discontent with the decrees of Providence, and 
with what is seen and known to be inevitable. When a woman 
sees and knows the duty assigned her by the ordinances of God 
and has been taught submission to the Divine will, she then 
certainly will perform her part with great pleasure and alacrity. 
KJQOwledge and a harmonious development of the human facul- 
ties cannot harm either man or woman. It is ignorance which. 



ADDRESSES. 375 

combining with an overweening conceit and assuming knowledge, 
does the mischief, and is the "dangerous thing," 

A summary of the present situation, so far as it appears from 
what we have already said, would be that the movement in behalf 
of female education is fully inaugurated; that woman shall 
enjoy on equality with men unlimited educational facilities ; that 
she is entitled to receive all the training and discipline necessary 
for the development of all her powers ; that as a consequence of 
this movement so inaugurated we have the right to expect that 
the men and women of future generations, who shall have for 
their mothers the students now thronging the institutions of 
learning established for the higher education of women, will 
excel this and all former generations of mankind, in physical and 
intellectual strength, in moral uprightness and genuine piety, 
and that we expect this result because a child born and reared 
by a mother who has physical and intellectual strength, moral 
uprightness, and genuine piety, in all probability on arriving 
at manhood or womanhood will be fully prepared to run a career 
in all respects distinguished for ability and good conduct. 

Other results that will follow the higher education for woman, 
besides what she will be enabled to do as a mother, have not 
as yet had special allusion made to them. The influence of 
woman as a mother is great and far reaching, but it does not 
stop there. It extends to everything that concerns humanity. 
The woman who receives the higher education is qualified thereby 
to do good and to act wisely in the discharge of all her duties 
to husband, family, and society, and to everybody and everything 
within the boundaries of female influence. 

There is a question not yet settled about which opinions differ 
in regard to the system that ought to be observed in educating 
the two sexes. Some educators contend that there should be 
co-education, and that there should be a joint course of discipline 
and study given to both sexes in the same class; while other 
educators hold that there ought to be a separation, and that the 
two sexes should be educated apart, with a course of study and 
discipline adapted to the peculiarities of each sex. So far as 
this question is concerned, there should not be any heated con- 
troversy about it. Both systems are now actually being tried, 



376 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

and all are agreed that the system shown by experience to be the 
more successful should be adopted. Therefore, there is little 
doubt but that the question will settle itself. 

In matters other than education the new movement has not 
arrived as yet at any definite limits. The learned professions 
here and there have been thrown partially open to women, but 
the movement in this respect though perhaps progressing has 
not proceeded very far. Employment in a great many different 
kinds of labor in which women formerly were not engaged is 
now thrown open to them, and it probably may be said with 
truth, that in this respect the movement is progressing. Nothing 
definite can be said as to the ultimate limitations of this move- 
ment beyond this, that it will stop when the sensible men and 
the sensible women are satisfied that it cannot go farther without 
endangering the welfare of the race. There are some things 
that without doubt will always remain for the men to do, while 
other things are left exclusively in the hands of the women. 
Women will never be called upon to carry the musket or to dig 
ditches; certainly not except in extraordinary exigencies. The 
household, the home, the family, are the proper dominion of the 
wife and mother. There she should be supreme. War, inven- 
tion, discovery, the subjugation of the wilderness and fitting it 
for civilization are the business of the men. In a vast number 
of employments it is not likely that a definite line of demarca- 
tion will ever be drawn between what shall be done by one sex 
and what by the other. No doubt some occupations always will 
remain open to both sexes alike. No superiority of one sex over 
the other is implied because in some matters the services of one 
are preferred to the services of the other. The sex enabled by 
its peculiar powers to perform a given work better than the 
other sex can, is preferred and ought to be preferred. 

There are questions more or less discussed at the present time 
about the ballot; whether or not that should be given to woman, 
and whether or not her participation in such business would be 
congenial to herself and tend to promote human progress. The 
class of women (to whom allusion has been made already as of 
no account) prancing along on the divisional line that society 
has fixed between the sexes as to manners and costume, putting 



ADDRESSES. 377 

on mannish airs, garments, and headgear, and exhibiting only 
faint traces of what would indicate the sex to which they belong, 
are extremely urgent and vociferous in their demands for the 
ballot. Although it must be admitted that there are some 
women and perhaps some men of character endowed with large 
intellectual powers, who sincerely believe that the whole domain 
of politics and government ought to be thrown open to women 
the same as it is to men, that women ought to have universal 
suffrage and be eligible to all the offices in all departments of 
the government, and to all positions in every branch of business; 
yet much the larger part of the sober-minded, sensible women 
do not regard it as their duty to seek such an extended opening 
for female action. On the contrary, they denounce the idea 
and say that it calls upon them to do what does not belong to 
them to do according to the natural and proper division of work 
between the sexes, and that they might just as well be called 
upon to carry the musket or dig ditches. 

The propriety and rightfulness of thrusting upon women all 
the turmoil, uproar, and unseemly strife that the carrying out 
of such an idea would involve, is certainly very doubtful. It 
would not enable her to use her natural and legitimate influence 
to any better advantage. On the contrary, it would place her 
in an unnatural position and where she would not feel at home, 
and thus she would be compelled to exercise her wholesome and 
necessary influence at a disadvantage. Her influence to be 
effective and useful must operate through the natural channels 
of female influence and in accordance with the laws of her being. 
The suggestion that we ought to wait until the human race is 
further advanced in light and civilization before we thrust upon 
woman the responsibility of the ballot fully extended, and of 
running the government in all its branches, is certainly reason- 
able. The intimate association of woman with children and 
youth, the deep interest she feels in their welfare, and her special 
responsibility for them, have caused everybody to agree that she 
ought to have a potential voice in their training and education. 
In accordance with this general popular assent, a movement was 
inaugurated sometime ago by which women have been made 
competent voters in school meetings, and eligible to the offices 
which have the management and control of the schools. 



378 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Certain Rocky Mountain states and other western states have 
imposed upon their women the responsibility of the ballot, and 
of taking an equal part with the men in administering the gov- 
ernment in all its branches. This movement must be regarded 
as simply tentative and experimental. "We shall do well if we 
watch it long enough to be satisfied as to its character. We shall 
then be able to draw inferences that may aid us in determining 
what we ought to do. It will no doubt be a good disposition of 
this question if we leave it to be determined by the next genera- 
tion. We have shown already what that generation is expected 
to be. We have shown that in it and a part of it will be the 
sons and daughters of mothers who are now girls receiving 
training and discipline in our numerous institutions for the 
higher education of women. We have a right to expect for this 
reason that the next generation will have the capacity to judge 
in regard to this and all other questions more wisely than we 
of this generation can. Also facts bearing on the question now 
unknown will then have come to light. The results of the experi- 
ments now going on in the Rocky Mountain and other western 
states will then be known, and the evidence presented to the 
next generation may remove all doubt and make very plain the 
way this question ought to be decided. What gives the question 
importance is the effect that its determination either way may 
have upon human progress. Whenever it shall come to pass that 
the level-headed, sober-minded, sensible women substantially 
concur in the conclusion that woman never will have her normal 
position in organized society until she has the ballot, and takes 
equal part with man in governmental affairs, and that the 
welfare and future progress of the race require her to assume 
those responsibilities, in the interest of harmony between the 
sexes which must be preserved, it will then be necessary to 
inaugurate and try the experiment without delay. 

In settling this question and all other questions as to the 
position each sex ought to occupy in society, let it always be 
remembered that man and woman are partners in the business 
of maintaining and improving the human race; that their joint 
obligation to contribute to the progress of the race wilj continue 
until mankind have advanced in knowledge, virtue, and goodness 
as near to Divinity itself as the lot of humanity will permit. 



ADDRESSES. 379 



THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON HUMAN 
PROGRESS. 

Annual Address Before the New Hampshire Historical 
Society, Concord, N. H., June 9, 1907. 

I define my subject in these words, "The Influence of Religion 
on Human Progress." Religion in some form always abides 
with man, inspiring his action and forming his character. Its 
power over humanity is almost without limit, sometimes inspir- 
ing deeds of vast beneficence and at other times instigating crunes 
of fiendlike wickedness. It instigates crimes when corrupted 
and inspires beneficent deeds when operating in its legitimate 
way. Human progress will be arrested by a corrupt and per- 
verted religion and will retrograde unless religious purity be 
restored. Fanatical bigots, venal priests and scheming politicians, 
interpolating into religion their dogmas and superstitions, have 
sought to enforce its acceptance, thus corrupted and perverted, 
by unrelenting persecution. In this way incalculable suffering 
and misery have been inflicted on mankind. In order to preserve 
the purity of religion or restore it when corrupted there must be 
absolute toleration of religious opinion and discussion. 

The nineteenth century has witnessed the commencement of 
an age that promises to be an age of free discussion, searching 
inquiry and patient thought. In the light of such an age, false 
creeds and doctrines wiU be exposed and errors and superstitions 
that in the past have enslaved mankind will be discarded. The 
truth will be established, and it is not unreasonable to expect 
that the time is coming when a pure religion, adapted to the 
wants of man, will meet with universal acceptance. The princi- 
pal religions of the world will demand attention that we may 
see which is fittest for survival. The earliest records of primitive 
man present him as a religious being. Impressed with awe at 
the wonders of the heavens above him and the earth around him, 
the inner intelligence breathed into man at his creation made 



880 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

him realize th.e presence of an unseen hand that controlled all 
things. He instinctively ascribed the guidance of the alternate 
changes of nature between light and darkness, heat and cold, 
sunshine and storm, to an invisible power of infinite might before 
whom he reverently bowed and worshiped. The religion of the 
childhood of our race was pure. It was untrammeled by either 
ritual or dogma. Religion in its purity is such a recognition 
of the Supreme Being as exercises a controlling influence on the 
character of man and effectually regulates his moral conduct. 
But the baser passions of man have perverted the original sub- 
lime simplicity of religion into gross superstitions. In the 
name of religion persecution, violence, outrage, and wrong in 
every form have been done. This work, however, has not been 
done by genuine religion. It has been the work of bigotry, 
superstition and politics. The intolerance of the bigot, seeking 
to maintain his dogmas by persecution, has afflicted humanity 
with much bloodshed, suffering, and misery. State-craft has 
induced kings and temporal rulers, seeking the accomplishment 
of their political ends, hypocritically to assume that they were 
acting for the glory of God and the extermination of heresy, 
while driving whole nations into exile, imprisoning multitudes 
of the righteous in loathsome dungeons and drenching their 
lands with the blood of martyrs. True religion, however, never 
inspires hatred, violence, and persecution. On the contrary, it 
inspires universal charity and love. It brings gentleness, peace, 
and the brotherhood of man. It gives to its votaries strength, 
fortitude, patience, humility, forgiveness, resignation, and thus 
enables them to triumph over violence, oppression, and martyr- 
dom itself. A religion subjected to the power of the state is soon 
loaded down with the dogmas of superstition and is religion 
no longer. It is then something out of which no good can come ; 
something either absolutely dead or positively pernicious. Free 
discussion, universal tolerance, are the weapons which can vin- 
dicate religious truth. In the glare of such weapons false 
doctrines fade away and disappear like the darkness of night in 
the dawn of the morning. 

In all ages of the world there has been a multitude of religions. 
Many of these religions are dead and buried with the people 



ADDRESSES. 381 

among whom they once prevailed. Truth more or less of it can 
be found in all these religions and several of them are based on 
the same great religious truths and have similar rules for 
regulating the moral conduct. The attributes of the Divine 
Power that all enlightened religions make the object of worship 
are perfect and infinite. According to those religions God is 
eternal, without change, without beginning and without end. 
His justice, His mercy, His love, endure forever and "He has 
made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of 
the earth. ' ' He is the loving Father of all mankind. His hand 
guides all things and He is the same yesterday, today, and 
forever. 

The uniform character of the divine government and the 
fatherhood of God thus recognized demonstrate that the 
beneficent Creator has not given sources of light and knowledge 
to a portion of His children and denied to the remaining portion 
all means of enlightenment. The irreverence of even the sug- 
gestion that such partiality has been shown by our Father in 
heaven who is no respector of persons shocks the innate intelli- 
gence of man. 

The great book of nature has been open always for all to read. 
At the beginning the conscience, the divine impulse to seek good 
and shun evil, was given to all men. As the waters quit their 
fountain heads and, uniting in streams, always are seeking the 
great ocean, so men quit their individual isolation, and, uniting 
in systems of religion, always are seeking God. He who has ears 
to hear and eyes to see and who, under the guidance of the 
divine impulse within him, subdues all the baser passions and 
seeks diligently for heavenly light, will be sure to find the way 
that leads to the knowledge of the truth. The man who has 
been brought by his pure life and earnest seeking to a knowledge 
of the truth is a prophet. He is a light to his people. His words 
awaken their consciences and make them see the truth as he 
sees it. He points out to them what God has revealed and 
presents the evidence that shows the revelation to be divine. 
The advent of the prophet may be in any age, in any country, 
and where any form of religion prevails. The way that leads 
to a knowledge of the truth may be found by all who seek it. 



882 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

The prophet in his meditations realizing the presence of the 
invisible God, thinking deeply, seeing far and understanding 
clearly what is revealed to him, declares it with an inspired 
utterance. It matters not as to the particular mode in which 
revelation is made. If the revelation be a revelation of the 
truth it comes from God, the fountain head of all truth. 

Religion must have for its basis truth, otherwise it is super- 
stition. Truth is always in harmony with itself. Truth never 
clashes with truth. The religions of the world differ from each 
other, but every truth in each one of them is in harmony with 
all truth. So far as those religions are shown to conflict with 
the truth, to that extent error is located and demonstrated. When 
any two of these religions are found to be in conflict, it is 
demonstrated that there is wrong somewhere; that one or the 
other or both are in error. Some of these religions are of such 
recent origin that the names and Lives of their founders are 
matters of history, whilst others are so old that all knowledge 
of their origin and of everything connected therewith is lost in 
antiquity. It is certain that the aspiration of all men for 
knowledge of the Infinite and the universal revelation that God 
has made of Himself have given a religion to every people ; but 
all men, moved by the same aspiration and recognizing the same 
revelation, could not be expected to agree exactly as to the 
meaning of that revelation. Consequently the inevitable has 
taken place and the early religions, pure in their origin, differed 
more or less at their very beginning. 

As time went on, some of the religions remaining comparatively 
pure while others were more or less perverted and corrupted, the 
original differences were broadened. A comparison of those 
religions, so far as there are any material differences, and free 
discussion will eliminate error and establish the truth. "The 
sure way to establish truth is to leave it free to combat error." 
There are indications, so far as religious truth is concerned, that 
the world ultimately will assent to this proposition and that 
sometime in the future we shall see everywhere absolute tolera- 
tion of all religions. In this respect great progress has been 
made already in the Christian world. The tortures of the inqui- 
sition no longer exist. Religious wars, massacres, and perseeu- 



ADDRESSES. 383 

tions have ceased to deluge France and Germany in blood and 
to drive their best citizens into exile. It was some time ago that 
England bestowed the crown of martyrdom on religious heretics. 
In those countries today, religious thought is free. 

A very good illustration of the progressive movement that has 
been going on in the world towards universal religious toleration 
can be found by a reference to the history of our own country. 
Our Puritan fathers of the seventeenth century, driven by perse- 
cution from their native land and seeking a place where they 
could worship God as their consciences dictated, fled to the wilds 
of America, and there laid the foundation of a new common- 
w^ealth. The government that they ordained was as intolerant 
in matters of religion as the government from which they fled. 
They persecuted with unrelenting severity everybody whose 
religious opinions differed from their own. Every aspiration 
towards God not breathed precisely as they breathed and every 
religious thought not colored exactly like their own thoughts 
were crimes which they punished with banishment, torture, im- 
prisonment, and death. Baptists were exiled, whipped and 
imprisoned. Holes were burned with red hot irons through the 
tongues of Quakers. Other religious sects received similar treat- 
ment. Respectable, God fearing men and women, who were 
guilty of no crime, were accused of witchcraft, hurried to the 
gallows and put to an ignominious death. 

Gradually light dawned on our fathers. Slowly they came 
to the knowledge that the religion they professed was a simple 
appeal to the hearts and understanding of men ; that it was 
not to be inculcated by the whipping post, the prison and the 
gallows, nor by persecution of any kind. The fixed and rigid 
character of New England Puritanism, however, would not 
permit it to rid itself of its intolerance all at once. It relaxed 
by degrees and broadened its narrow views with reluctance. Its 
intolerance still lingered at the time of the adoption of our state 
constitution and had then strength enough to compel the incor- 
poration of the religious test into that instrument, and there 
afterwards to maintain it therein down to a very recent period. 
After a while the spirit of progress did its work, and now the 
obnoxious test does not disfigure our fundamental law. The 



384 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

rapid movement of the age towards freedom and the liberal sen- 
timents that now so thoroughly surround us, make it hard for 
us to realize that only a little while ago a large body of our 
fellow-citizens, whose patriotism and intelligence have never 
been wanting, and who always have done their duty on the 
battle-fields and in the councils of the nation, have been held 
under our constitution to be ineligible, on account of their relig- 
ious opinions, to offices of trust and responsibility. We have 
reason to be thankful that we are emancipated from the intoler- 
ance of the past, not merely because we incur no penalties by 
selecting as conscience dictates our modes of divine worship, 
but also because religious freedom has brought peace and har- 
mony to religious sects that in the days of intolerance were 
warring always with one another. The inevitable enmity, 
jealousy, and hate that arise between religious sects from the 
fact that some are the persecutors and others are the persecuted, 
or from the fact that some have privileges above others, disappear 
when all are put upon equality. In our country each and every 
religious sect or denomination is protected securely from receiv- 
ing either aid or opposition from the state. To each and every 
one of them with the same advantages and disadvantages, one 
and the same duty is left to be performed. That duty is taught 
them by the gospel of their Divine Master, whose supreme 
authority they all acknowledge. They all work in the same 
field with the same means and for the same end. The gospel of 
Christ is the common source from which each one of them receives 
its guidance. They are all beginning to learn that the differences 
that constitute the distinctions between their several sects are 
either nominal or have little to do with the gospel of Christ. 
So far as those differences arise from the dogmas of the scholas- 
tics, the corruptions of the dark ages, and the interpolations of 
state-craft and priest-craft, they are no part of our religion, 
and they will flee before the light of free discussion as darkness 
flees before the light of day. The causes which created and 
maintained divisions among Christians being removed, there 
would be nothing remaining to prevent the return of brotherhood 
and mutual sympathy. It is not likely that for no good reason 
Christian sects will suffer themselves to remain in hostile and 



ADDRESSES. 385 

rival divisions, each one constantly marring the work of the 
other. Such divisions could not stand a moment before the fire 
of free discussion, so plain is the truth that in union there is 
strength, but that a house divided against itself cannot stand. 
The tendency of the Christian world is, and henceforth must be, 
towards union and concentration of effort to give the light of 
the gospel to all mankind. In our own country. Christian 
churches are prepared or are fast reaching that state of prepara- 
tion which will enable them to concentrate their efforts in the 
great work of evangelizing the world. Free discussion and abso- 
lute freedom of religious opinion has enabled us in this respect 
to lead other Christian countries. Religious intolerance is, how- 
ever, diminishing throughout Christendom and everywhere 
within it there is a tendency more or less marked towards free 
discussion and religious liberty. In fact, the enmity that has 
existed between different Christian denominations is waning, 
and the way is opening for Christians everywhere to combine in 
an effort to bring all the nations of the earth to a knowledge of 
the religion of Christ and to make it the universal religion. It 
is true that much remains to be done before such an effort can 
be made. Christianity will be the door that opens into the 
kingdom of heaven and will be fitted to be the universal religion, 
when, unchained and divorced everywhere from its unholy union 
with the state and all its alliances with temporal affairs, it shall 
become purely spiritual in its appeals and in its government. 
The Divine Master, during his labors with humanity, taught the 
distinction between the heavenly and earthly kingdoms, and de- 
nounced the appropriation to secular uses of what belonged to 
God. Christ said, ''Render unto Caesar the things which are 
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's," thereby 
declaring that the kingdom of heaven and the state were things 
apart; that both were to be obeyed in their respective spheres, 
but never to be mingled together. Christ, also, overturned the 
tables of the money changers in the temple of Jerusalem, and cast 
out all those that bought and sold, thereby signifying that relig- 
ion must not be polluted; that holy places must not be con- 
taminated by being made places for traders and speculators to 
ply their vocations. Christianity, when it takes strong hold of 



386 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the hearts of men, giving them peace, light, and knowledge, and 
leading them to a higher and better life, gives evidence that it 
is of divine origin and is pure; but when it loosens its hold on 
the hearts of men and ceases to influence their character and 
conduct, it is no longer Christianity except in name. In sub- 
stance it is then nothing but a lifeless carcass. Some poisonous 
or impure thing has stolen in upon it or been thrust upon it and 
completely paralyzed it. Whatever the cause of the impurity 
may be, free discussion will expose it. The truth will triumph, 
impurity be removed, and the dead body animated with new 
life. No good can come from subjecting religion to the patronage 
of the state or from suffering it to pander to the selfish schemes 
of worldly interest. On the contrary, great harm may be done 
thereby. 

Religion does not need that the state should support it. Our 
own country affords a practical demonstration that religion, 
divorced from the state and left dependent upon the voluntary 
contributions of the people, will receive a generous support. 
Religion emancipated from state control, with perfect toleration, 
and free discussion, will stand with nothing in the way to pre- 
vent it from becoming again the gospel pure and undefiled, as 
originally preached by Christ and His apostles. The work 
done for us by toleration, free discussion, and the separation of 
church and state can be repeated by the use of the same means 
in other Christian countries. We may look with confidence for 
the glorious time that is coming when Christianity everywhere 
released from thraldom shall be itself, when men will be not 
tempted to be called Christians except as they are drawn by the 
Divine Spirit to seek God and His righteousness, and when he 
who professes Christianity will practice his religion. Christians 
then cannot be reproached justly as a Christian once was by a 
Buddhist scholar, who, addressing the Christian, said, ''You 
Christians have the very best religion in the world, and it ought 
to become the religion of all men ; but you do not practice your 
religion, and for that reason inferior religions are able not only 
to sustain themselves, but even to get the better of you. ' ' This 
reproach will adhere to Christians, and their efforts to spread the 
gospel be without power until they themselves have demonstrated 



ADDRESSES. 387 

their faith by living lives of self-denial, sincerity, truth, and of 
obedience to all the precepts of Christianity. When the great 
body of Christians have demonstrated to the world that they 
"practice their religion" in sincerity and in truth, they then 
will be in a good position to obey with successful results the 
standing order of the Divine Master, issued and recorded more 
than eighteen hundred years ago in these words, "Go ye into 
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. ' ' 

Most of the great variety of religions that the world has seen 
are ethnic in their character, and are so interwoven with the 
peeularities of the people where they originated that their mean- 
ing and significance are not understood by strangers. Conse- 
quenty those religions make no converts outside of the localities 
where they were born. Such were the religions of Scandinavia, 
Ancient Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, and Rome, religions that do not 
now exist. The ethnic religions, belonging to nations that have 
passed away, are dead religions. Their theologies, their creeds, 
and their ethnics are lost in oblivion except so far as frag- 
mentary discoveries are made by the reasearches of anitquarians 
and scholars. 

Of the once numerous followers of Zoroaster only an insignifi- 
cant remnant is left. The same is true of the Jains. Confucian- 
ism and Taoism in China, Brahminism in India, Shintoism in 
'Japan, and Judaism, the religion of ancient Judea, and now the 
religion of a people scattered over the face of the earth, are the 
principal ethnic religions that today have living representatives. 
Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity are the only 
religions in existence that proclaim the truths from which they 
respectively claim to be founded in a form that all the world 
can understand. Consequently, these three religions are all in 
such forms that either of them may be made a universal religion. 
If it be true that God has given to humanity a religion capable 
of taking to itself truths of all other religions and satisfying the 
religious longings of all men, then there should be no delay in 
tendering to all mankind this invaluable gift. The blessings that 
would flow upon the world from the universal acceptance of this 
gift are vast and obvious. 

There are two points of view from which these blessings may 



388 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

he seen. One point would be a view of man as an individual, and 
the other a view of men aggregated and organized into nations. 
A religion universally accepted, that awakens the divinity in 
man and causes him to subdue his baser passions, is a gift of 
infinite value to individual happiness, and to nations a gift 
insuring to them permanent peace and constant progress in 
everything that elevates and improves humanity. The sugges- 
tion that there may be such a thing as a universal religion 
naturally raises the question as to the future of the three great 
existing religions already named as not precluded by their form 
from becoming universal religions, viz., the Buddhist, the 
Mohammedan, and the Christian religions. Will they remain as 
they are today, each maintaining its hold upon a very consider- 
able portion of the world; will one of them prevail over the 
others and become the universal religion, or will all three, by 
reason of failure to keep pace with the inevitable changes of the 
future, be compelled to yield their places to some other religion 
or religions that a new order of things may require? 

In view of the instability of all earthly things it may be 
assumed that the three great religions will not remain in the 
world always as they are now, and there are unmistakable indica- 
tions that a change is near at hand, and that their present 
relative positions cannot be maintained much longer. The world 
has shaken off the drowsiness that followed the deep sleep of 
the dark ages, and now is fairly awake. The opening up of all 
nations to intimate intercourse and to an accurate knowledge 
of one another has brought these religions in close proximity, 
and there is opportunity for careful comparison. They can be 
fairly weighed and considered, and the truth found in each one 
of them everybody can accept, and is in duty bound to accept. 
Where one religion conflicts with the other, one or the other or 
both must be wrong. Free discussion will expose the error and 
make the truth apparent. When man plainly sees what is true 
and what is false he will not hesitate to accept the truth and 
reject the falsehood. 

In the dim light of the primeval age man could have had only 
a very crude conception of his mission on earth, of his relation 
to the invisible God, and of life beyond the grave. During all 



ADDRESSES. 389 

the ages that since have passed away, the light of revelation has 
been shining, and men have been gathering knowledge of the 
truth. The knowledge thus acquired shows that a religion to 
be accepted by all men must contain the truth and a fulness of 
truth so that all hearts may be reached. The three great religions 
as to their following stand relatively in this way : Buddhism has 
the largest following, Christianity the next largest, and Islam 
the smallest. The followers of these three religions aggregated 
constitute a very large majority of the entire population of the 
earth. The people who are not followers of some of these three 
religions are followers of the local or ethnic religions such as 
Confucianism and Taoism in China, Shintoism in Japan, and 
Brahminism in India, 

We will glance briefly at the origin and characteristics of the 
three principal religions. First, Buddhism, now estimated to 
be the religion of five hundred millions of human beings, had 
its origin in India more than five hundred years before the 
Christian era. Its founder was a prince, the son of the king, 
who ruled a territory of limited extent in India lying north of 
the holy city, Benares. This prince, known by several names, 
Sakya Muni, Gautama, Siddartha, and the Buddha, was distin- 
guished in youth for his clear intellect, his piety and upright 
conduct. Acquiring all the accomplishments that belonged to his 
position as the heir of royalty, he grew to manhood. Happily 
married to a worthy princess for whom he had a tender attach- 
ment, standing high in the confidence, love, and esteem of his 
royal father, his attention was taken from his personal enjoy- 
ments by observing the instability of all earthly things, and the 
evils that were constantly bringing sorrow and suffering upon 
his fellow men. The conviction came to him that beyond all 
this there must be truth and a law which never changed, and 
that the knowledge of that law would enable him to rescue man- 
kind from their misery. He resolved that he would acquire that 
knowledge and become the deliverer of humanity. In obedience 
to that resolution, he left wife, father and friends, and became 
a mendicant, subjecting himself to all the austerities of such a 
life. He sought everywhere for the light that would show him 
the knowledge that would enable him to be the deliverer of man 



390 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

from his woes. He applied to the learned teachers of Brahminism 
but he got no satisfaction from them, and he came to the con- 
clusion that light was not to be found in that direction. He quit 
his ascetic diet, but continued his hermit life and spent years in 
patient study and deep meditation. He passed through the 
trying experience that has preceded the mission of all the great 
prophets of mankind. At length after six years of steady, per- 
severing search, enlightenment came. Sitting in profound 
meditation for a week under a bo tree, not changing his position 
for a whole day and night, the knowledge for which he was 
seeking came to him with a conviction of its truth not to be 
shaken. 

The place where Gautama had his vision that revealed to him 
the knowledge whereby mankind were to be saved, always has 
been regarded by Buddhists as a sacred place. Having received 
enlightenment, Gautama at once proclaimed to the world the 
revelation he had received. Great numbers were converted, and 
among the converts were the father, wife, and son. He con- 
tinued to teach until his death at the age of eighty years, living 
a life in strict conformity to his teachings and of a most exem- 
plary character. He taught that Nirvana, a state of blissful 
rest, might be reached by the subjugation of self, of all passions 
and desires, and by the uniform practice of charity ; that Nirvana 
when reached, was rest, deliverance from the woes and miseries 
of this life. As to God and life beyond the grave, he taught that 
everything was unknown and unknowable. He gave precepts 
that carefully pointed out the way to reach Nirvana, His 
teachings were not committed to writing by him, but after his 
death they were written out with great care by his disciples and 
recorded in the sacred book of Buddhism. 

Large volumes containing commentaries of learned Buddhists 
upon the teachings of the Buddha have been written that cer- 
tainly rival, if they do not surpass, in number and magnitude 
the numerous and ponderous tomes that Christianity has filled 
with commentaries upon the teachings of Christ. General coun- 
cils were held for the purpose of correcting abuses and preserv- 
ing in purity the religion taught by the Buddha. Three hundred 
years before the Christian era and in the reign of Asoka, the 
great Buddhist emperor of India, the third general council was 



ADDRESSES. 391 

holden. At that council arrangements were made for mission- 
ary work on a broad scale. Missionaries were sent to Ceylon, 
Java, Burmah, Siam, China, Japan, Nepaul, Thibet, Western 
Asia, and throughout the world as it was then known in India. 
This work was continued by the Buddhists of India for centuries, 
and all over that country are still standing ancient topes and 
monuments commemorating what was done by those missionaries. 
Not far from the close of the eighth century Buddhism was 
expelled from India. It left behind, however, some evidence of 
its humanizing spirit in the softened character of the religions 
that remained, and it so far maintained and strengthened its 
hold on the people outside of India, that it has ever since and 
now has a larger following than that of any other religion. To 
class such a religion as this with the fetichisms and superstitions 
that brutalize man would be unjust and a great mistake. Its 
earnest and zealous missionaries went abroad and converted vast 
multitudes and established wherever they went monasteries and 
schools that have been and are now the sources of public instruc- 
tion. Its teachers have developed a depth of thought and a 
strength of conviction that must have had inspiration from at 
least a partial sight of the truth. 

There are many points of resemblance between the history 
and character of Buddhism and that of Christianity, as well as 
material points of difference. Their history and character re- 
semble each other in these respects: First, both religions have 
been driven from the countries of their origin. Christianity had 
its birth in Judea, and was driven therefrom. Buddhism origi- 
nated and flourished for a long time in India, but was exiled 
many centuries ago from its native land. Secondly, both re- 
ligions have made vast strides outside of the countries of their 
origin, and both have myriads of followers in many different 
countries. Thirdly, they are the only religions that have sent 
missionaries abroad and attempted to teach their religion to all 
nations, discarding force, and relying in their appeals solely 
upon the truth and the convictions thereby created. Fourthly, 
they both enjoin self-denial, love of fellow-man, charity, fidelity, 
truthfulness, and all the moral virtues, and both have wholesome 
precepts pointing out how to live a correct life. 



392 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

There is, however, a wide difference between the two religions, 
of immeasurable significance. The God of the Christian is ever 
present with humanity. His love is infinite; His mercy en- 
dureth forever; He is ready to receive all who seek Him, and 
give them on earth the joys of heaven as a foretaste of what is 
to come when this "mortal shall put on immortality and this 
corruptible shall put on incorruption. " Through faith the 
Christian is given a realizing sense of the Divine Presence and 
of his own immortality. The Buddhist by his self-denial, his 
charity, and his uniformly correct conduct only aims to be de- 
livered from the miseries of this life and to reach Nirvana. 
Beyond that his religion gives no light. To the Buddhist, the 
existence of God and the immortality of the soul are unknown 
and unknowable, are nothing. The gospel of Christ would 
supply to the Buddhist something of infinite importance that 
in his religion is wanting. It would give him the Christian's 
God and the Christian's faith in a blessed immortality. Chris- 
tianity, accepting into itself all the truth there is in Buddhism 
and thus fulfilling that religion, would be doing the work of 
Christ, who declared that he came to fulfil and not to destroy. 
The Buddhist embracing Christianity would find himself con- 
firmed as to every truth in his old religion, while in spiritual 
life and light he would be elevated high above his former stand- 
ing. 

The followers of Mohammed present to the Christian mis- 
sionary an aspect more forbidding than that of the gentle 
Buddhist. The bigoted, fanatical, and pitiless spirit that always 
characterized Islam is in marked contrast to the unfailing char- 
ity and pity for humanity exhibited by the disciples of the 
Buddha. Mohammed and his successors spread his religion far 
and wide by the terrors of the sword. They gave to the people 
they conquered the choice between death and the Koran. Con- 
verts made in this way were no genuine converts. They were 
merely slaves going through prescribed forms and ceremonies 
without heart and without relief. The Mohammedan religion 
was soon spread over nearly all the countries where it prevails 
today and over some countries where now it does not exist. In 
a few of the early centuries of Moslem power, and during the 



ADDRESSES, 393 

dark ages, institutions of learning of an elevated character ex- 
isted and flourished at Cordova in Moorish Spain, at Bagdad, 
the seat of the Moslem caliphate, and at Samarcand, the ancient 
Maricanda. Until the light of the Renaissance dawned on 
Christendom these seats of learning within the territories of 
Islam were the only places in the world where the arts and 
sciences were highly cultivated, and the literature and phil- 
osophy of Greece and Rome carefully studied and preserved. 

It has been a debated question whether or not the religion of 
Islam was in any way instrumental in creating and upholding 
these famous institutions. It seems that the men who did the 
work and who were the teachers and directors and furnished the 
funds for upholding these schools were Jews, and that the 
Moslem rulers did nothing towards their support except to tol- 
erate them. Islamism of itself is not a promoter of learning and 
the cultivation of the arts. One of the immediate successors of 
Mohammed, the Caliph Omar, invading and conquering Egypt, 
deliberately burned the great library of Alexandria, saying that 
the Koran contained everything necessary for man to know, 
that it was immaterial whether the library contained only what 
was in the Koran or something more ; in either event it was not 
needed, and should be burned as a useless incumbrance. The 
fact that the great institutions of learning at Cordova, at Bag- 
dad, and Samarcand are not now in existence and that no cor- 
responding institutions in the territories of Islam have taken 
their place, is evidence tending to show that those institutions 
when prosperous were not made so by the influence of the Mo- 
hammedan religion. 

The decay of civilization in Mohammedan countries since the 
days of the Prophet shows that progress is not aided by the re- 
ligion of Islam. The present sultan of Turkey, who has re- 
ceived deservedly the name of butcher, now holds the place once 
held by the Prophet. He holds the Caliphate. In the Moslem 
world he is the head of what are styled the true believers. No 
good and much evil is to be anticipated from a religion which 
has for its exponent the present sultan of Turkey. The jealous- 
ies of the great Christian European powers among themselves 
have upheld and now uphold the tottering throne of the sultan, 



394 HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 

and are enabling greedy, fanatical, and cruel Mussulmans to 
plunder, starve, and butcher unoffending Christians without 
limit and without distinction of age or sex. No doubt this mis- 
erable business will come to an end sometime. The wrath of 
Grod and the awakened consciences of all honest men must soon 
burst the webs that cold blooded, unpitying diplomacy has 
woven, rescue innocence, and avenge its wrongs. The unspeak- 
able Turk must be driven from the seats which in the first place 
he usurped and since has held as a robber and a murderer. 

The followers of Mohammed have degenerated sadly from 
what they were in former days. Abuses, superstition, and cor- 
ruption have crept in apace, and the very fountain head of their 
religion is polluted. He who should guide them aright is per- 
verse and desperately wicked. No Luther nor Calvin nor John 
Knox nor other reformer of any kind arises to rescue the re- 
ligion of Mohammed from the superstition and corruption in 
which it is buried. It is believed that the time has come when 
another religion, assimilating to itself all the truth there is in 
the religion of Islam, should take its place. 

Mohammed, the founder of the Moslem religion, was bom in 
Mecca, in Arabia, A. D. 569; lost his parents at an early age, 
but was tenderly cared for by relatives during his youth. He 
reached manhood without acquiring vicious habits or bringing 
any stain on his character. He married a wealthy widow con- 
siderably older than himself, with whom he lived in affectionate 
harmony until her death. He was a trader, and conducting his 
business with ability and fidelity, he acquired a wide reputation 
as a reliable merchant. Always thoughtful and serious, he ac- 
quired the habit of retiring into solitude for prayer and medita- 
tion. In these solitary vigils he began after a time to have vis- 
ions of angels, to hear voices, and to see light. Revelations were 
made to him which he, assuming to be the prophet of God, pro- 
claimed to the world, and made the basis of his religion. His 
wife, who all along had S3anpathized with him in his religious 
experiences, was his first convert. 

During the first ten years after entering upon his mission 
he made only few converts and these were for the most part 
members of his family or were his relatives or immediate friends. 



ADDRESSES. 395 

All Arabia at that time had surrendered itself to the worship of 
idols and the grossest superstition. His religion declared that 
there was but one God and enjoined an entire submission to his 
will. Mohammed vehemently denounced the idolatrous worship 
and the superstitious practices that were going on all around 
him, and as a consequence he was assailed by a most bitter per- 
secution. At length the spirit of persecution waxed so hot 
against him that he, with his few followers, was obliged to flee 
from Mecca to Medina. This flight took place A. D. 622, is 
called the Hegira, and is the event from which the Mohammed- 
ans reckon time. 

At Medina, Mohammed largely increased his following and 
was able to take the field and rout his foes in the Battle of 
Bader, fought January, A. D. 624. He then organized a power- 
ful army of his followers, and led them with such skill that he 
overthrew all opposition in Arabia, conquering and taking 
possession of Mecca, A. D. 630. All the Arabian tribes sub- 
mitted to his authority and accepted his religion. Having 
founded a religion, created an empire, and compelled the ac- 
ceptance of his religion throughout his empire, and having per- 
fected the organization of an army of veteran soldiers animated 
with fanatical zeal, he died A. D. 632, and left to his successors 
the work of extending the empire, and spreading his religion. 

The caliphs who succeeded him with the army he trained soon 
spread the empire and his religion over Syria, Persia, Palestine, 
Spain, and Northern Africa. The earnestness of Mohammed 
and the intense conviction that always inspired him shows that 
in his mind there was no doubt that he was the prophet of God, 
that his visions and revelations came from God, and that the 
unerring combinations in war of his clear intellect and his deep 
insight into men were divinely inspired. The consciousness, 
ever present with him, that God reposed in him special trusit 
gave to him a dignity which impressed his followers with rev- 
erential awe and they listened to his words as oracles coming 
through him from God. 

If it be conceded that these visions and revelations of Moham- 
med were delusions it also must be conceded that the worst 
deluded person of all was Mohammed himself. Through all his 



396 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

life up to the time when he succeeded in establishing by the 
sword his power and his religion, and until within a few years of 
his death, he was a marked man by reason of his uniformly cor- 
rect deportment and his practice of all the moral virtues, and 
during the long period that he was abused, reviled, and perse- 
cuted on account of his religion, he bore it all with infinite 
patience and equanimity. It was after his character as a prophet 
and his temporal power were fully established that he seems to 
have become unbalanced and contradicted his former life of self- 
denial and kindness for his fellow men by taking a multiplicity 
of wives and filling his harem with young and beautiful women 
and by treating the conquered with undue severity and cruelty. 
The religion that Mohammed taught is sublime in its monotheism. 
It declares that there is no god but God. It inculcates, however, 
a blind submission to God so absolute as to be a practical recog- 
nition of the doctrine of fatalism. The God of Islam is a god 
of will, cold and distant. He is the imperious master and man 
his abject slave. The God of Christianity is a loving Father 
ever present with his children and by his incarnation actually 
demonstrating to the earthly senses his nearness and his love. 

The ethnic religions for the most part have their sacred books 
and some of them have had profound teachers that the world 
recognizes as great men. Confucianism embodies the teachings 
of Confucius who lived and labored in China five centuries be- 
fore the Christian era. His writings contain much truth, so 
stated as to enforce conviction, and they stand today and have 
stood for twenty-four centuries, in the eyes of many millions of 
people, as the embodiment of wisdom. Through all the ages 
since his death there have been multitudes who thought of Con- 
fucius what these words express: 

"Confucius, Confucius! tiow great was Confucius! 
Before him there was no Confucius. 
Since him there has been no Confucius. 
Confucius, Confucius! how great was Confucius!" 

The religion of India, Brahminism, has an antiquity so re- 
mote that there is no record of its origin. It rests on caste with 
social distinctions that are fixed and unchangeable. It has with- 
stood invasion and conquest and is today as it was in the earliest 



ADDRESSES. 397 

period of recorded history. It is the religion of India only, so 
fastened there as to be incapable of becoming the religion of 
another country. It has sacred books and an accompanying 
literature that reach back into pre-historic times. Notwith- 
standing the great age of Brahminism and the continuous in- 
tellectual labors of its teachers in abstract reasoning and phil- 
osophic speculation, it has not aided progress. India remains 
today, so far as it has been affected by Brahminism, as it was 
when invaded more than three hundred years before Christ by 
Alexander the Great. Christianity, receiving into itself what is 
true in Brahminism and thus becoming the religion of India, 
would awaken the Hindoo mind from its sleep of ages, elevate it, 
and place it in line with the intellectual forces that lead in the 
progress of mankind. 

Judaism is the religion of the remnant of Jews that rejected 
Christ and by rejecting him left their religion a narrow ethnic 
religion, incapable of making converts from the people of other 
nations. Judaism is for the Jews only. One not born a Jew 
must be adopted as a Jew before he can become a convert to the 
religion of the Jews. Judaism by rejecting Christ lost all the 
interest it might have had in the conversion of the Gentile world. 
Few in number, scattered all over the world and exclusive in 
their religion, it is not likely that the Jews will aid or retard 
materially the world's progress. 

I assume without further discussion that the pure and simple 
gospel of Jesus Christ constitutes a religion of catholicity, ca'pa- 
ble of taking to itself the truths of all other religions and of 
becoming the universal religion. The attack made on Chris- 
tianity by showing that the Mosaic account of the creation is dis- 
credited by science falls harmless. The Christian Bible does 
not teach nor does it purport to teach the science of geology, 
biology, or evolution. It is a book containing religious truth and 
explaining the relations between God, man, and the universe, 
and as such is the Christian 's guide. Christianity is itself truth, 
and always harmonizes with truth, and can never conflict with 
scientific truth. On the contrary it receives to itself all truths 
when established. In that sense it is progressive and thus it 
maintains and is entitled to maintain its leadership of mankind. 



HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 

Man must have a religion that in his eyes is truth, and if he 
discovers additional truth reconcilable therewith, his stock of 
knowledge is increased, but faith in his religion is not thereby- 
shaken. History shows that Christianity, when abuses have 
crept in upon it, has power to purify itself, while other religions 
have not that power. In the gloom of the dark ages the Chris- 
tian church became so loaded down with corruption, supersti- 
tion, and unwholesome dogmas that both religion and civilization 
were threatened with a common burial. 

In defiance of the contaminating influences that were pushing 
Christianity on this downward career, a protest went up from 
the bosom of the church itself, which shook Christendom from 
centre to circumference. Luther and Calvin and their devout 
and fearless associates lifted their voices in denunciation long 
and loud of the abuses, the uncleanness, and the false doc- 
trines that polluted the church. The reformation began and 
was continued. After many years of painful struggling among 
warring Christians a steady movement was inaugurated towards 
the recovery of the pristine purity of Christianity. That move- 
ment has accomplished much and is still progressing. 

The good work of the reformation has not been confined to 
those who protested. The mother church, the church of Rome, 
itself was awakened and strove vigorously to shake off the tor- 
por, paralysis, and venality brought upon her by bad men and 
evil times. She has sent out her earnest, devoted, and untiring 
disciples everywhere and sought to spread Christianity with the 
zeal of apostolic days. There has been intolerance and persecu- 
tion bitter and unrelenting, but it has not been confined entirely 
to the church of Rome. The shadow of that wickedness rests on 
the history of both Catholicism and Protestantism. This intol- 
erant spirit does not now exist in nations that have reached 
an advanced stage of civilization, and is weakening everywhere 
before the progressive movement of the world. So far as our 
own country is concerned, the church of Rome can claim justly 
that it has done its part towards the establishment of religious 
freedom. In the early days and while our Puritan fathers were 
persecuting the Quakers and hanging the witches, Lord Balti- 
more, a Catholic nobleman, planted the Catholic colony of Mary- 



ADDRESSES. 399 

land and proclaimed to all wlio might come freedom of religious 
thought and worship. All along in our history, as a general 
thing, the higher dignitaries of the Catholic church have been 
broad-minded, liberal men, and the clergy have been devoted, 
untiring, and unassuming. 

As a consequence of religious freedom and the placing of all 
Christian denominations and sects upon equality, there has 
sprung up between them a feeling of sympathy and good-will. 
This feeling is growing and evidently from the character of the 
situation must continue to grow. Every one of the different 
sects and denominations has as its religion the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. They all acknowledge one and the same Divine Master 
and Teacher, and have received from Him the same identical 
instruction. The command to preach the gospel everywhere, to 
every creature, is alike obligatory upon them all. In obeying 
this command of Christ, the different Christian sects and de- 
nominations will do well if, when seeking to convert non-Chris- 
tian people, they preach His gospel and do not trouble their 
hearers with the nice tenets that show the distinction between 
their several creeds. In that way they will avoid clashing with 
each other and will not by idle discussion distract and disgust 
those who are seeking to know the truth. In that way they will 
be teaching Christianity as Christ and His apostles taught it, 
and may well expect that success will crown their labors. 

It is said of the ethnic religions that they are purest at their 
beginning and that, subsequently assailed by corruption, they 
grow less pure. We can have no doubt that Christianity at its 
fountain head is absolutely pure. Christianity at its fountain 
head is the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the word of Him who said, 
"I am the bread of life. Whosoever eometh to me shall not 
hunger." The gospel of Jesus Christ is the teaching of the in- 
carnate God, Himself. Implicit faith in the gospel and strict 
obedience to its teachings are the evidence that a man is a Chris- 
tion. If beyond that, rites, ceremonies, and creeds are insti- 
tuted for Christian observance, they should not be made a 
subject of controversy. All the nations of the earth that are 
maintaining a civilization of an elevated character, progressing 
in the arts and sciences, and aiming in all things at improvement 



400 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

with the possible exception of Japan, are Christian nations. The 
impulse that awakened Japan and caused her to join in the 
march of improvement was given by Christian nations. Her 
leading men have investigated the causes that have placed the 
Western world so far in advance of the East in everything which 
elevates man and contributes to his well being. One of her far- 
seeing statesmen has said, "Japan wants Christianity, not the 
Christianity of any particular denomination of Christians, but 
the Christianity of Jesus Christ, which, when she has received 
it, will be not the Christianity of Europe or America, but the 
Christianity of Japan. ' ' 

It is plain that the gospel of Christ, unadulterated with creeds 
and dogmas, will draw all people to it. The Deity portrayed 
by that gospel is the God that humanity longs for. He became 
incarnate and walked on earth with men and taught them. He 
is their loving father, always present and ever watchful of His 
children. Christ came not to destroy the laws of Moses and the 
prophets, but to fulfil them; that is. He came to adapt the old 
laws to existing circumstances and accomplish their intent. The 
mission of Christ was to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. He 
no more came to destroy the laws of Gautama, Confucius, and 
the Gentile prophets than he did to destroy the laws of Moses 
and the Hebrew prophets. He came to fulfil them both. When 
the mission of Christianity as affecting other religions is under- 
stood and it is left to work out its own results, it will become the 
universal religion. No religion that does not recognize and 
receive to itself the truths of all other religions can ever become 
the universal religion. The Christian missionary in non-Chris- 
tian lands ought always to bear in mind the ideas of Dr. Watts 
expressed in these lines: 

"Seize upon truth where'er it is found 
Among your friends, among your foes, 
On Christian or on pagan ground. 
The flower's divine where'er it grows. 
Neglect the prickles and assume the rose." 

This idea was always borne in mind by the Apostle Paul in his 
missionary labors, and he never failed to recognize a truth in the 
old religion of those he sought to convert, nor did he quarrel 



ADDRESSES. 401 

with those whom he had converted about their old rites, cere- 
monies, and customs not in conflict with Christianity, however 
repugnant they might be to his personal tastes and habits. Good 
results were always realized from his labors. Modem Christian 
missionaries in their efforts to spread the gospel in heathen lands 
have met with success in an indifferent character when com- 
pared with the mighty work accomplished by the apostles and 
early Christians. Their want of marked success may come from 
the failure to study the example of the apostles and profit by it. 
They have not reached those whom they would convert. The 
light has been so presented that either it was not perceived at 
all, or if it was perceived it did not receive fair consideration. 

A warm welcome and a fair hearing are essential for mis- 
sionary success, but our missionaries have not been introduced 
into the so-called heathen lands in such a way that it was reason- 
able to expect for them a welcome and a hearing of that char- 
acter. Their mission has been heralded as a mission to men very 
low down in the scale of humanity. Even the good and learned 
Bishop Heber, in his familiar missionary hymn, alludes with 
great melody and force to the degraded condition of the people 
who are the proposed subjects of missionary labor, as "heathen," 
** bound in error's chains," and "in their blindness bowing to 
wood and stone." A fair sample of the whole hymn can be 
seen in the following verse: 

"What though the spicy breezes 
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle, 
Though every prospect pleases, 
And man alone is vile." 

The principal religion of Ceylon is Buddhism, and, saying 
nothing as to the injustice of calling a devout disciple of the 
gentle Buddha vile, it is certainly injudicious for missionaries 
to commence efforts to convert Buddhists or other non-Christian 
people to Christianity by calling them "vile." Success will 
attend the labors of our missionaries of today when they study 
the situation and, taking the example set by St. Paul for their 
guide, shall regard and teach the heathen as human beings who 
learn, think, and feel like other men and who are capable of re- 
ceiving into their hearts and realizing the truths of the gospel. 

26 



402 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

"When in this manner missionary work is done and the zeal of 
Christians everywhere awakened, it will be found that the salt has 
not lost its savor and that the gospel restored to its legitimate 
position and receiving the support of all Christians has regained 
the power it had in the apostolic days, and is capable of becom- 
ing what it was intended to be, the religion of all mankind. 
Christian nations are at this time anxiously seeking for some 
means that will save the world from the horrors of war and as- 
sure permanent peace. It does not seem to have occurred to 
them as yet that Christianity is a means by which that end 
can be secured. They are, however, on the road that leads to 
that conclusion. They want permanent peace and are attempt- 
ing to secure it by arbitration treaties. They will soon find that 
arbitration treaties cannot restrain the old war spirit unsoftened 
by Christianity and nursed by the maintenance of standing 
armies that are immense and of navies that darken all the seas. 
Under such conditions it is idle to talk about securing permanent 
peace by arbitration. The reign of peace cannot be secured un- 
til the divine element in man is awakened by an awakening so 
general and powerful that its influence controls all nations. Re- 
ligion is the only power that can awaken the divinity in man and 
the gospel of Christ is the only religion which affords a hope that 
it will become the universal religion and thus be able to awaken 
everywhere what is God-like in man and prepare the way for 
permanent, universal peace. Then and not till then will the 
time have arrived, foretold by the Prophet Isaiah, when * ' swords 
shall be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning 
hooks." 



ADDRESSES. 403 



THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII: A RIGHT AND 

A DUTY. 

President's Annual. Address Delivered Before the Grafton 
AND Coos Bar Association at Woodsville, N. H., January 
28, 1898. 

Gentlemen of the Association : 

Our fifteenth anniversary has arrived and we will now enter 
upon its exercises. I give you a cordial greeting and bid you 
welcome here, trusting that we are all devoutly thankful for 
the Divine care and mercy that have sustained us during the 
year and brought us once more together. 

I shall venture to address you upon the subject of Hawaiian 
annexation, although I am aware that it is a subject about which 
there may be different opinions. I am convinced, however, that 
far-reaching consequences will affect our country for good or for 
ill accordingly as this subject is rightly or wrongly disposed of. 
Therefore I claim that we should study the subject, hear dis- 
cussion upon it, and be prepared to give our influence, whatever 
it may be, in the right direction. Especially do I claim that 
upon questions of this character the bar should be prepared to 
advise and act understandingly, and that every American 
citizen, with intelligence sufficient to comprehend his duty, as 
such citizen should expand his ideas and extend his vision be- 
yond the attainment of mere partisan advantages. 

Some time ago I wrote a paper which discussed this question 
and as it has not been published I propose to use it on the pres- 
ent occasion. There are some things in it which I might qualify 
or explain in the light of recent occurrences, but I am entirely 
content that the grounds there taken should remain as they are 
and be considered the record of my judgment both as to what 
the situation is and as to what ought to be done. 

The subject of the paper to which I have referred is entitled 
* * The Annexation of Hawaii : a Right and a Duty, ' ' and is dis- 
cussed as follows: 



404 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

The annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States 
is a matter that demands the serious consideration of the Ameri- 
can people. It raises questions that ought not to be discussed 
and settled in partisan spirit, but there should be honest in- 
quiry and a judgment based upon conviction of what is just and 
for the good of all concerned. In view of the present situation 
and the past relations between those islands, this country, and 
other countries, it seems strange that any enlightened American 
citizen should be found opposed to their annexation. Such an 
opponent cannot stand on the ground that our national Consti- 
tution does not authorize us to receive additional territory. The 
right of the federal government to receive additions to its terri- 
tories has been established by numerous precedents. Since the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution, vast territories from time 
to time have been added to the United States. According to 
our laws and according to our national policy and practice, there 
can be no doubt that our government has the power to make a 
lawful acceptance of the proffered annexation. The offer is 
made to us by the government of Hawaii of its own motion; a 
government fuUy established and recognized by the United 
States and the other nations of the world as in the actual and 
rightful control of its people. The parties are competent to 
contract. It simply remains for us to accept or reject the of- 
fer, and in so doing to be governed by the duty we owe to our- 
selves, to the Hawaiian people, and to the rest of the world. 
Those islands lie much nearer to us and our continent than they 
do to any other nation or continent. They belong to the Ameri- 
can continent, and may properly be regarded as an appendage 
thereto. Steam and electricity make them comparatively near 
to our shores, and if the Nicaragua canal is built they will be 
still nearer. Their climate is salubrious and mild, with only 
a slight difference between the extremes of heat and cold. Their 
soil is rich, producing sugar-cane, coffee, rice, and tropical 
fruits in abundance. The sides of their mountains afford ex- 
cellent pasturage. Their value for agricultural and grazing 
purposes simply would make their annexation a valuable addi- 
tion to our territory. It is the testimony of competent engineers 
that those islands can be fortified easily, so as to be as impreg- 



ADDRESSES. 405 

nable to the assault of hostile navies as any of the numerous and 
costly fortifications which Great Britain has erected and main- 
tains on the shores and islands of America. As a naval station 
for the defence of our Pacific coast, they would be invaluable. 
For many years last past this country has had a great and prof- 
itable trade with those islands. They are so far Americanized 
now that annexation will be but one step further, and the great 
emigration from this country thither which would immediately 
follow annexation soon would complete the work of their assimi- 
lation to our ways and institutions. 

Ever since Hawaii became known to the civilized world our 
statesmen have contended that our interests there were para- 
mount to those of all other nations, that we could not permit 
colonization or the exercise of control there by other countries, 
and that we favored the independence of the islands, but if their 
independence could not be maintained, then their ultimate des- 
tiny must be in our hands. To these contentions of our states- 
men the world has yielded. "We have practically controlled 
Hawaii for the last fifty years. Our missionaries have gone 
there, Christianized the natives, and settled there. Our men of 
affairs have gone there, taken the lead in all important matters, 
and out of barbarism have created civilization. Hawaii has 
been justly called the key of the Pacific ocean, and as such key 
its value is apparent when we consider what a vast commerce in 
the future is sure to seek for itself a highway over the waters 
of that ocean. In that commerce our country ought to lead, 
and will if she is true to herself. The time has arrived when 
Hawaii, unable longer to endure without protection her isolated 
condition, has petitioned our government to be permitted to be- 
come a territory of the United States. The question is. Shall we 
grant this petition ? It has already been shown that the annexa- 
tion of Hawaii would be an acqusition of great value. It has 
been said that he who will not provide for his own household is 
worse than an infidel; and it may be added that the nation 
which will not look out for its own interests and make the wel- 
fare of its people as secure as possible is an imbecile and con- 
temptible nation. In this age all nations except the United 
States are intent upon adding to their territories. Great Brit- 



406 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ain, France, Germany, and Russia are searching the remotest 
corners of the earth, and grasping new territory wherever they 
can do so with impunity. Lesser nations, in a smaller way, are 
doing the same thing. The United States alone seems to hesi- 
tate about adding to herself new territories, however desirable 
they may be. If we do refuse to allow the rich, desirable, and 
important Hawaiian Islands permission to became a part of our 
territory, it will be an act of utter recklessness and indifference 
in respect to our interests as a nation and our welfare as a peo- 
ple. It is certain that our duty to ourselves requires us to 
accept this offer. 

The next inquiry is. What are the duties we owe in this mat- 
ter to the people of Hawaii and to the rest of the world ? 

Let us first consider our duty to the people of Hawaii. Their 
islands are situated where all the great nations of the world 
desire a foothold. They have stood alone and independent 
until their position has grown so important that they realize they 
cannot stand alone any longer, and that they must ally them- 
selves with some strong power. They have selected as that 
strong power the United States, the nearest to them of all na- 
tions, not only geographically but in every respect. They re- 
ceived from the United States Christianity and everything else 
that tends to distinguish them as they now are from the sav- 
ages discovered by Captain Cook in 1778. Hawaii turns to the 
United States for protection as a child turns to its father. It 
is hard to conceive of a moral obligation stronger than the one 
that rests on us to accept this offer. All, or at least some, of the 
enemies of annexation say that "they never will consent that 
Hawaii should become a part of this country," and with the 
same breath they announce that "they will never permit any 
other nation to colonize or control it or be allied with it, and 
that, though weak and helpless, Hawaii must stand alone and in- 
dependent." No reasonable man can consider such treatment 
of Hawaii as this to be humane and just. If the people of the 
United States have become indifferent to their own interests, 
and if they are determined to ignore all the claims that the 
people of Hawaii have upon them, then their only honest course 
is to say in. response to this application, * * No, we will not take 
you ; go seek protection elsewhere. ' ' 



ADDRESSES. 407 

The importance of Hawaii as a coaling station for all the 
shipping of the Pacific ocean, whether commercial or naval, is 
obvious. In our hands the aid that it would afford us in pro- 
tecting our extended Pacific coast, would be of immense value. 
In the hands of an enemy with a naval power, it would be a 
constant menace to us. Navies and armies could be safely con- 
gregated there for raiding the Pacific coast and for the invasion 
and occupation of our Pacific states. Mr. Blaine called Hawaii 
"the key of the Pacific ocean." These facts in the past have 
caused our secretaries of state, among whom were Daniel Web- 
ster, William L. Marcy, and James G. Blaine, to declare in their 
official capacity that the United States has such an interest in 
Hawaii that she can never allow any other nation to colonize 
or control it; and now it is on account of these facts that the 
enemies of annexation are compelled to qualify their declaration 
that they will not consent that Hawaii should be annexed to this 
country, by the further declaration that she must not be colon- 
ized or controlled by any other country; that she must stand 
alone, independent, and guard the key of the Pacific unaided. 
In view of all the circumstances it is unnecessary to say that 
such a response actually made to the petition of Hawaii would 
be most unreasonable and brutal. It would undoubtedly result 
in compelling her to throw herself into the arms of some other 
power. Other powers know the value of Hawaii, and if they 
could get it would consider it a great acquisition. England 
would have taken possession of it long ago if our statesmen had 
not objected on the ground of our paramount interest. England 
has yielded to our claim and will make no objection if we ac- 
cept the offer of annexation. But if we reject the offer and 
Hawaii then offers herself to England, England will surely 
accept. Our protests, grounded on paramount interests, will 
then be disregarded. England could then reply to us, when 
we made such protests, and say justly, * * Your conduct shows that 
you have no such interest. These islands need protection and 
they asked you for it and you refused to give it. If you had 
any interest in the islands you abandoned it when you refused 
to give them protection. You cannot succeed in this dog-in-the- 
manger policy, refusing to do a thing necessary and proper to 



408 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

be done and prohibiting everybody else from doing it. Hawaii 
asked you for protection. You refused to give it. She now 
asks us for protection. "We shall give it." 

We may be assured that when we renounce Hawaii England 
will take it and hold us to our renunciation. 

'Japan, emerging from semi-barbarism and in the morning 
twilight of her civilization, peering across the vast waters of the 
Pacific, sees and appreciates the importance of Hawaii. She 
construed the treatment that President Harrison's treaty of an- 
nexation received and the chivalrous course that President Cleve- 
land took in behalf of the deposed queen to be evidence that the 
United States didn't care for Hawaii and would have nothing 
to do with it. In that view, Japan has caused her people to 
emigrate in great numbers to Hawaii with the evident purpose 
of obtaining ultimately the control of the islands. This pur- 
pose was so repugnant and became so patent to the Hawaiian 
government that it prohibited recently any further landing on 
its soil of emigrants from Japan, The inhabitants of Hawaii 
of American or European origin, and its inhabitants of aborig- 
inal origin, who are all Christians, will not submit voluntarily 
to be governed and controlled by Japan whose people are still 
pagans and idolaters. There is little doubt that if we refuse 
to take Hawaii she will not go to Japan but she will tender her- 
self to England and be accepted. Our country, then, in the eyes 
of all other countries will be estopped from making any objec- 
tions and in our own eyes we shall be so estopped by every con- 
sideration of right and justice. The time has arrived when we 
must either accept the offer of Hawaii and annex it or repudiate 
the rights we have hitherto asserted over it and relinquish all 
claim to control its destiny. 

The acquiescence of other nations heretofore in our exercise 
of control over the islands, and in our asserted right to per- 
manent control over them, was a virtual contract on our part with 
those nations that we would continue permanently to maintain 
such control, and that they could deal with us thereafter for the 
accommodation which their commerce on the Pacific Ocean might 
require at those islands. If we should reject the proffered an- 
nexation we shall not be able to do what the various nations of 



ADDRESSES. 409 

the world have a right to expect us to do for them. The acquisi- 
tion of Hawaii by England would give her another impregnable 
position near the shores of America from which she could easily 
assail and plunder our Pacific cities or land on our coasts an 
invading army. 

Various objections have been urged against the annexation 
of Hawaii, all of which on investigation will be found to be 
either irrational or frivolous. It has been objected that the 
islands are too far out in the ocean and that it will cost us much 
labor and money to defend them. In reply we will call atten- 
tion to what we have already shown, viz. : that Hawaii is of vast 
strategical importance; that it is the key of the Pacific ocean; 
that in our hands it is a point of infinite value for defence ; and 
that in the hands of an enemy it is a point where he could aggre- 
gate his resources in security and with great facility raid or 
invade our Pacific states. Some of the opponents of annexation, 
when hard pushed for arguments, have assumed that the edu- 
cated and Christian Hawaiian natives are not represented by 
their government and that they are opposed to having their 
country become a part of the United States. Appeals are made 
to the sympathies of the American people not to compel by su- 
perior force these contended and intelligent natives against their 
wishes to become citizens of our country. There is no evidence 
that the native Hawaiians are opposed to becoming such citizens ; 
on the contrary, whatever their feelings may be towards their 
existing government, the evidence is that they favor annexa- 
tion to the United States. All agree that these native Hawaiians 
are educated and intelligent. They know what their situation 
is and what it will be if they become American citizens. The 
assertion that they are really opposed to annexation to the 
United States is not only without proof but it is without the 
probability of truth. 

Another objection is that we want no more territory; that if 
we take Hawaii it will be a precedent for taking Cuba and 
Canada, if they should be hereafter offered to us, and that we 
want no more territory, however valuable it may be or however 
just and reasonable it may be that we should take it. This 
objection involves the consideration of matters of vital impor- 



410 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

tance to the well being of our people. It is certainly important 
that a nation should keep open all the avenues in which its 
people can escape from inertia and sloth and get a training that 
develops their mental and physical powers and qualifies them 
to do effective work for the elevation and improvement of their 
country. Our commerce and shipping that once found their 
way over all the waters of the globe, that rivaled and threat- 
ened to surpass the commerce and shipping of Great Britain, are 
now gone. The schools of seamanship thus furnished kept the 
energies of our people alive, developed their brawn, intellect 
and courage, and fitted them for valorous deeds. Our country 
was then full of hardy, brave, and patriotic seamen, but now it 
is with difficulty that seamen enough are found to man our 
infant navy. We have grown so much afraid of the salt water 
that in this age of steam, when in a little space of time oceans 
are crossed, our people are importuned to reject the annexation 
of islands belonging to our continent because they are a little 
way out at sea. Formerly our millionaires were merchants, such 
as Girard, Gray, and John Jacob Astor, who accumulated their 
millions by gigantic commercial enterprises carried on over the 
waters of the world. Now our millionaires accumulate their mil- 
lions by creating gigantic monopolies and trusts and by wreck- 
ing railroads. The whaling business has been a great school for 
developing in our young men hardihood, daring, and energetic 
habits. That school also is closed, probably never to be opened 
again. Our people can hardly be said to carry on the fishing 
business with the vigor of former days. In fair competition, 
they scarcely keep even with Canadian fishermen and seal- 
catchers. The whaling business died out by reason of inevitable 
changes. The tameness of our fishermen comes from our general 
decay in sea-going energy. Our commerce and shipping have 
dwindled to their present impotent condition by reason of 
restrictive navigation laws and prohibitory tariffs. The only 
avenue now open that leads to what will preserve the energy and 
enterprise of our people and keep them in the line of national 
progress is the avenue that leads to new lands where by toil and 
hardship the wilderness can be subdued and in its stead civiliza- 
tion planted. This avenue, if no more territory is to be added 



ADDRESSES. 411 

to our national domain, is now also practically closed. The last 
of our good settling lands were taken up when Oklahoma was 
organized and opened up for settlement. The tremendous rush 
of stalwart humanity to get a foothold on the virgin soil of 
Oklahoma afforded a glimpse of the mighty forces that have 
made for us so many great and prosperous states out of what a 
little while ago was a howling wilderness. In the past the 
•energy, muscle, and brains of the country cultivated, developed 
and employed in whaling, in the fisheries, in ocean commerce, 
and in the settlement of new territories have made the United 
States a great and powerful nation. And now, whaling being 
a dead industry, the fisheries in a decline, no prospect of a 
restoration of our lost commerce and shipping, and our lands 
suitable for settlement all taken, the opponents of Hawaiian 
annexation come to the front and say that there must not be any 
more territory annexed to the United States. If this interdict 
against more territory is established and the United States 
forever limited to their present boundaries, while existing con- 
ditions in other respects remain, then the sooner our people 
cease their activities, retire within their shells and go to seed, 
the better. When a nation closes up aU its avenues that lead to 
enterprise and progress, it has made preparation for death, 
and thereafterwards the sooner it passes to inertia and sloth and 
suffers itself quietly to be consumed by dry rot, the easier it will 
sink into nonentity and be forgotten. In such a case, however, 
energetic habits that can find no legitimate vent will be liable 
to break out in criminal disorder and hurry the nation's death 
by rioting, havoc, and destruction. Already so many of the 
avenues in which our national energies have operated hitherto 
have been either closed or obstructed that symptoms of decay 
and disorder thereby occasioned have been manifested. There 
has been a falling off among our people in the reliance that the 
individual has upon himself. There is a growing disposition to 
seek paternal aid from the government. The capitalist em- 
barked in a business venture, wants legislation that will insure 
him his profits. The farmer asks the government to loan him 
money with which to lift his mortgage. Recently an army, re- 
cruited from the unemployed and headed by General Coxey, 



412 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

marched on Washington, demanding of Congress that it should 
enact measures which would give them employment. Discontent 
and uneasiness, generated by idle energies, pervade the multi- 
tude. It is certain that this country will fall into premature 
decay and wither away long before it has reached its prime, 
unless the forcesi that have built it up to its present magnitude 
are kept employed. We must not heed the voice that says, 
"Lfct us stop here, keep what we have got, and proceed no 
farther." We cannot stand still. We must advance or we 
shall certainly retrograde. Any lullaby about feasting on what 
we have and working no more is luring us to destruction. We 
have only one alternative. We must either advance on the line 
that Washington, Jefferson and our great statesmen have marked 
out and on which we have hitherto proceeded or fall back amid 
shame, disorder, and misery, and take the road that leads to 
final extinction. 

The age of our country is a little more than a century. Com- 
paratively speaking, England is very old, whether her age is 
reckoned from the withdrawal of the Roman legions and the 
Anglo-Saxon occupation in the fifth century or from the Nor- 
man conquest in the 11th century; yet through all the ages of 
her national existence she has constantly been augmenting her 
energies by keeping them actively employed, and today she is 
more aggressive and progressive than ever before. England 
commenced her career as a nation with a section of the island 
of Great Britain. In the course of time she annexed Wales and 
Ireland by conquest, and Scotland by treaty. She has extended 
her empire by conquest over almost half of the continent of 
North America. She has conquered and maintains dominion 
over the immense empire of India. She holds undisputed sway 
over innumerable islands scattered everywhere, lying in all the 
waters and zones of the globe and varying in size from an island 
of continental dimensions with millions of square miles down to 
an island containing but a few acres. England possesses more 
or less territory on all the grand divisions of the globe and she 
boasts with truth that the sun never sets on her dominions. She 
is never scrupulous about the right when she can take with 
impunity. She colonizes all her territories that are vacant, or 



ADDRESSES. 413 

only roamed over by savage tribes, and English speaking people 
are rapidly multiplying throughout her dominions. She has 
torn down all the barriers to trade that she has ever erected, 
and urges trade on everybody. All the known avenues of trade 
are kept wide open and search for new ones is constantly made. 
The activities and energies of her merchants, cultivated and 
developed by their vast opportunities, have monopolized the com- 
merce of the world and extended their traffic into the remotest 
seas and to all lands. Trade vigilantly sought after and prose- 
cuted everywhere, and colonization of all parts of the earth 
steadily carried on, have fostered the spirit of enterprise in the 
British people and caused them continually to grow in hardi- 
hood, vigor, and intelligence. The same forces that have enabled 
modern England to surpass her former self in bold seamanship, 
daring adventure, and brilliant exploits have developed and 
strengthened the intellect of her people and given her energetic, 
far-seeing statesmen. Englishmen know and cherish the sources 
of their greatness. They also appreciate their faithful servants 
and treat with due respect the rulers who dignify and give 
character to the nation. Witness the honors recently paid to 
their very worthy queen. 

England is not cited as an example for our imitation, but as 
an example for us to study and by such study to be profited. 
She has kept open every avenue where it was possible for her 
people to find employment, and as a consequence her people 
have always been characterized by thrift and industry, her 
laborers contented and her soldiers brave. Her navies control 
the seas, her merchants hold the commerce of the world, and her 
cabinet is ruled by strong, brainy men. The example of England 
teaches us what we ought and what we ought not to do. It 
teaches us that we ought to open up to our people all the ave- 
nues to employment of which we can obtain rightful control, 
and on the other hand it teaches us to shun the wrongs of Eng- 
land in seizing territory without right and extending trade by 
undue means. The lesson taught us by the example of England 
ought also to teach us to realize what supreme folly it would be 
for us to refuse the offer of a territory which we can rightfully 
take, and which is of great value to us, not only for its intrinsic 



414 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

worth, but for its position and the security its possession would 
afford our country. 

It has been asserted that if Hawaii was made a territory of 
the United States it could not be governed; that Congress has 
not power to govern it as a territory, and that it is not fit to be 
made a state. This assertion is the assertion of one who either 
wilfully misstates or is grossly misinformed. Congress is auth- 
orized expressly by the Constitution to govern the territories 
and has always exercised that power with perfect submission 
thereto ever since the government was organized. It has used 
its strong arm whenever necessary for the preservation of whole- 
some rule in the territories. In Utah it uprooted and abolished 
polygamy, planted and defended there by the stubborn power 
of religious fanaticism. Christianity was introduced into Hawaii 
two or three generations ago, and the living descendants of its 
aboriginal inhabitants have been reared and trained as Chris- 
tians. They can read and write and are of a peaceable, law- 
abiding disposition. The Chinese and Japanese now resident 
in Hawaii are mere laborers, and if the United States laws are 
extended over it their further immigration will be restricted. 
A slight consideration shows the absurdity of the claim that 
Congress, with its ample powers, will find any difficulty in gov- 
erning Hawaii, because of a small civilized remnant of the 
aborigines, or on account of a few laborers from China and 
Japan. The further fact that Congress would not be authorized 
to admit Hawaii as a state, until in its judgment she was fit to 
become a member of our family of states, ought to quiet all 
apprehension of any bad result from her annexation. Fears 
have been expressed that our country is extending its boundaries 
too far for safety, as it respects external defense and internal 
harmony. The only mode of determining whether or not such 
fears are well grounded, is to canvass without prejudice the sit- 
uation as it is. In regard to external defense there can be no 
reasonable apprehension that any nation of the western hemis- 
phere can make a dangerous assault upon us. We have reason 
to fear danger from Europe and possibly from Japan. We 
cannot avoid anxiety so long as European fortresses like Esqui- 
mault and Bermuda, bristling with cannon are seen along the 



ADDRESSES. 415 

coasts and on the islands of America. There will be reasonable 
ground to fear European encroachments until both the Americas 
and the islands appertaining to them are freed from European 
dominion. When the nations of the western world possess all 
its mainland and islands, our country will be reasonably secure 
from either European or Asiatic invasion. History shows that 
evolutionary changes among nations are constantly going on, 
that their territorial limits are changed, that new nations are 
formed and old nations transformed, or wiped out altogether. 
It is not impossible or even improbable that the time is not far 
distant, when the several territories belonging to the independent 
nations of the western hemisphere will embrace the entire Ameri- 
can continent and its islands, freed from all claim of either 
European or Asiatic domination. The statesmen of all the 
different countries of America, recognizing the common interest 
in such a consummation, while observing aU their obligations 
may be expected to acquiesce with satisfaction in events that 
tend toward establishing the independence of any American 
country now subject to European power. It is not to be ex- 
pected that their statesmen will put any obstacles in the way 
of those evolutionary changes which tend to emancipate the 
entire western hemisphere from monarchic and despotic rule. 
We cannot refuse to annex territory when we thereby strengthen 
ourselves and bless the people we take, and when we also spread 
republican institutions, and make the external defenses of our 
own and all other American republics more secure. 

As it respects the suggestion that a further annexation of 
territory to the United States will destroy internal harmony 
and pave the way for a disruption of the Federal Union, a con- 
sideration of the character of our government shows that this 
objection does not rest upon a good foundation. A consolidated 
government, extending over a vast area, and embracing a great 
variety of climate and production can be administered only with 
great difficulty and will be liable to fall to pieces at any moment. 
No such thing as liberty can exist in a broad empire containing 
a variety of different conditions as respects climate, people, and 
production, if it is governed absolutely in all matters through- 
out its entire boundaries by a central power. In such a case the 



416 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

governing power in order to be effective must be a despotism, 
stem and relentless, and even then its hold will be precarious. 
The people will hate it and revolution will always be imminent. 
Its extension over more territory will render its hold still more 
precarious. The government of the United States is a govern- 
ment of a character altogether different. The federal govern- 
ment is the central power, and its authority is limited to matters 
that concern all the states alike, such as declaring war, making 
treaties, and regulating commerce, while each state is in full 
control of all its local and domestic matters. The federal gov- 
ernment can command the entire resources of the country in 
its defense and in the maintenance of its honor. The several 
states, each independent of the other, as sovereign states, exer- 
cise all the powers appertaining to government except the powers 
delegated to the United States. The people of each state are 
left to govern themselves by themselves and for themselves in all 
matters of local concern, and in all those matters about which 
the citizen takes cognizance in his daily life. Our people are 
free, attached to their government, and are resolved to maintain 
it. No government on earth is stronger than ours. Our govern- 
ment will remain strong and our people will be free just so long 
as the federal powers and the reserved powers of the states are 
each exercised in accordance with the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion. The Federal Union, by its delegated powers, protects the 
nation from foreign aggression and secures the general welfare. 
The states by their reserved powers protect the people from the 
tyranny of centralization and secure individual liberty. The 
Federal Union has not been weakened by the vast territories 
acquired and the many new states that have been admitted into 
it since its formation. On the contrary without doubt it has 
been strengthened thereby, and, but for these acquisitions, might 
not now be in existence. In a union embracing a great many 
different states, each with its peculiar views and interests, a 
common ground of disaffection is not likely to exist over states 
enough to inaugurate a successful rebellion. So long as our 
Union answers the purposes for which it was created, all parts of 
it will be attached to it, and will render it substantial support. 
The more extensive it is, the more powerful will it be, and the 



ADDRESSES. 417 

greater will be the difi&eulty that designing men will have in 
making combinations sufficient to overthrow it or even endanger 
it. New states might be admitted into our Union until the whole 
continent of North America is embraced within its limits, with 
good results, provided that such additional new states contain 
a population who appreciate its blessings and are devoted to 
its maintenance. Congress, to the extent of its constitutional 
authority, could legislate for the Union, limited only by the 
boundaries of North America, just as well as it can legislate 
for the Union as it is now bounded. All the states, both old and 
new, could exercise their reserved powers each in its own way 
and render due obedience to the general government just the 
same, whatever the territorial limits of the Union might be. 
It is not suggested that we go on annexing territory indiscrimi- 
nately without considering the character of the annexations we 
make, but it is intended to be asserted that our government and 
institutions are such that they can be extended over additional 
territory without impairing their successful operation, and that 
the admission of new states into the Union until it reaches far 
beyond its present limits will give strength and not weakness 
to the body politic. It is further intended to be asserted that we 
need additional territory in order that our people may find the 
employment and get the discipline necessary for the develop- 
ment, strengthening, and preservation of their energies, and in 
order that our progress as a nation may not be arrested. 

Hawaii is offered to us under such circumstances that we can 
rightfully accept it. All of our people agree that it is of great 
importance to us, that our interest iii it is paramount to that 
of any other nation, and that we must not lose control of it or 
suffer it to pass into the possession of any other power. We 
know that other powers are desirous of possessing it, and but 
for their recognition of our right, some of them would have taken 
possession of it long ago. "We know that Hawaii is utterly 
unable to protect itself, and for us, in view of all the circum- 
stances that surround the question, to refuse this offer would be 
something worse than folly, — it would be madness. 

It has been objected that the annexation of Hawaii will require 
us to augment our navy and to become a strong naval power. 

27 



418 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

This objection assumes that if we do not annex Hawaii, we shall 
not need an augmented navy and will never have occasion to 
become a strong naval power. Nothing can be further from the 
truth than this assumption. The nations of the world are vying 
with each other in the construction of monster iron-clad ships, 
armed with all the terrific modern implements of destruction. 
Today a nation is feared and rated as a power of the first, second, 
third, fourth or fifth magnitude, or of no magnitude at all, 
according to the number and size of the iron-clad ships she can 
put into immediate and effective service. If the United States 
desires to maintain herself in the eyes of the world as a strong 
power she must have a strong navy. In this age, neither popu- 
lation nor wealth nor anything counts towards creating a whole- 
some respect for a nation that is without a strong navy. Already 
all the leading nations of the globe except our own are armed 
and prepared for war with iron-clad ships and engines of de- 
struction not known or dreamed of in any former age. Years 
of labor and skill have been expended in constructing and per- 
fecting each one of these ships and engines. The best intellects 
have been constantly employed in the invention and improve- 
ment of instruments of havoc and death. England, France, 
Germany, and Russia have already partitioned and divided 
between themselves the great continent of Africa, the islands 
of Polynesia, and the largest part of the vast continent of Asia. 
Soon that part of Asia not now thus disposed of will be appro- 
priated in like manner, and then those nations will be ready to 
give their undivided attention to the American continent. When 
that time arrives and they proceed to partition, divide and 
appropriate to themselves the American continent, what will 
become of the Monroe Doctrine ? What can we do or say about 
it? Unless we then possess a powerful na,vy, the Monroe Doc- 
trine will be heard of no more, and we can do nothing nor say 
anything that will be heeded. South America, the West India 
Islands, Central American, and Mexico will be disposed of easily, 
and our rich cities and prosperous states will furnish luxurious 
feasting where the territorial gormandizers of Europe can gorge 
themselves with impunity. 
But upon the other hand, let the United States then possess 



ADDRESSES. 419 

a powerful navy, and Hawaii well fortified, with reasonable pro- 
tection for our Atlantic coast, and the Monroe Doctrine will be 
respected. We shall be safe in the enjoyment of our national 
independence, have a standing among the nations of the earth, 
and be able to exercise a wholesome influence upon the world. 

It is idle to deny what is plainly indicated by the signs of the 
times. The tremendous and continuous rivalry among nations, 
every one striving with all its might to be foremost in the mag- 
nitude of its preparation for war has a meaning. It is not 
fun, it is business. It means that this immense preparation is 
to be utilized, and that either with or without the actual clash 
of arms the nations that are prepared for war are going to 
dominate and control all nations and people that are not so 
prepared. A numerous population and vast wealth without cor- 
responding protection will invite the invader. Whether we 
annex Hawaii or refuse so to do, it is certain that our standing 
in the world cannot be maintained in the future nor our national 
existence be secure except we possess a strong navy. 

It is also certain for reasons already given that the annex- 
ation of Hawaii would greatly augment the national prestige 
and security that a strong navy would give us, and at the same 
time add much to the efficiency and usefulness of such a navy 
in guarding our coasts. 

There is another objection to the annexation of Hawaii, 
coming from that part of the country which has engaged or 
proposes to engage in the cultivation of the sugar beet. It is 
claimed that the great amount of cane sugar that Hawaii would 
produce if annexed would ruin the sugar beet industry. The 
miserably selfish few who make this objection admit in the 
very terms in which they make it that they are clamoring in 
behalf of an insignificant interest of their own against the 
welfare of the whole country. They denounce the measure 
because they fear it will enable the American people to get their 
sugar from their own territory at a low cost and thereby diminish 
the chances for profits in the sugar beet experiment. As a 
reason for opposing annexation, they assign a strong reason for 
its consummation. The patriot for his country's good will sac- 
rifice his private advantages. The man who will injure his 



420 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

country to profit his private interests and the traitor are made 
of the same stuff. For pelf either will sell his country. At all 
events the worth of a citizen who for selfish considerations will 
sacrifice the welfare of his country may be estimated at a low 
figure, and it may be safely cauculated that those who oppose the 
annexation of Hawaii are either ignorant of the situation or on 
account of some selfish motive are hostile to the general good. 
Perhaps after all we ought not to be surprised because the 
proposition to annex Hawaii meets with opposition. 

Judging by the past, we must expect some opposition however 
strong in favor of annexation the case may be. It will be remem- 
bered that there were Tories in the American Revolution, and 
that ever since our national existence began, down to the present 
time, we have had those among us who have clamored violently 
against the adoption of every measure, which, when adopted, 
has contributed to the growth and prosperity of the country. 



ARGUMENT. 



[It may well be regarded as matter of regret that there can be no di- 
rect record of the many able and effective arguments made by Harry 
Bingham, in the discussion of questions of law and of fact, during the 
more than fifty years of his professional career. Certain it is that as no 
other man of his day exerted a more powerful and beneficent influence 
upon the character of New Hampshire legislation, so the spoken words 
of no other lawyer of his time, or of any time, were more effective than 
his in moulding the development of our jurisprudence. 

And yet there are no complete reports of any of his arguments, and, 
beyond two or three cases, not even an abstract has been preserved. In 
point of fact, he seldom or never made a written argument, speaking, al- 
most invariably, extemporaneously, or from brief notes, elaborated ac- 
cording to the demands of the occasion, with little regard for rhetor- 
ical elegance or literary finish, but with a logical power and an earnest- 
ness of manner which seldom failed to carry conviction. 

Of the arguments made by Mr. Bingham, of which measurably com- 
plete stenographic reports have been preserved, which include two ar- 
guments in the Supreme Court, in 1870, in the celebrated case of the 
Northern Railroad Co. v. The Concord Railroad Co., and the closing 
argument in the hearing before the legislative committee on the Hazen 
jand Atherton bills in August, 1887, the latter is selected for presenta- 
tion here as a specimen of Mr. Bingham's forcible and direct manner 
of address in oral argument, the subject being one of more general in- 
terest than is involved in the others.] 



ARGmiENT OF HON. HARRY BINGHAM AGAINST THE 
HAZEN BILL, AND IN FAVOR OF THE ATHERTON 
BILL, BEFORE THE RAILROAD COMMITTEE OF 
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE LEGISLATURE, AUGUST 12 
AND 13, 1887. 

Mr, Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Committee and of the 
Legislature : 

I come now to say the last that can be said in behalf of the 
Atherton bill, so-called, and in opposition to the Hazen bill. 



422 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

so-called. I speak especially in behalf of the Boston, Concord & 
Montreal Railroad. I do not know that I shall be able to make 
myself heard through this hall, but I will do the best I can. 

In my judgment, since New Hampshire became a state, there 
has not been an issue before its Legislature more grave, or that 
went deeper, or that more vitally affected the dearest interests of 
the state, than does the issue which is now pending before you. 
On the one side are the railroads of New Hampshire that are 
controlled by New Hampshire interests. On the other side is a 
corporation controlled by interests which are foreign to New 
Hampshire, and which have already obtained the control of 
all the railroads in the northeastern half of Massachusetts, and 
in the eastern part of New Hampshire, and in the whole of the 
state of Maine. The question before us now is. Shall this cor- 
poration, already so largely in the control of railroads in Massa- 
chusetts, in New Hampshire, and in Maine, be put into the con- 
trol of the remaining railroads of New Hampshire, and all rail- 
road competition be wiped out? A second and perhaps more 
vital question is, whether you will permit one corporation to 
subject all the railroads of the country and to blot out all com- 
petition, in order that a few individuals may take from the 
public untold millions and put the same in their pockets by stock 
watering and by stock gambling? 

In what I am about to say to you I desire to make plain my 
reasons for the position I take. There are a great many things 
which I ought to call your attention to, and some of them of con- 
siderable intricacy, and which ordinarily are not matters of 
common reflection. I therefore must respectfully ask of you 
your close attention. I shall endeavor as far as possible to avoid 
all personal allusion. I shall make such allusion only when it is 
necessary for me so to do in order to illustrate the cause which 
I advocate. And that cause I claim to be the cause of the rail- 
roads of New Hampshire and the people of New Hampshire. 
(Applause.) 

In the outset something like preliminary definitions and ref- 
erences to fundamental principles should be made. And the first 
inquiry I will make is. What is a corporation? A corporation, 
as defined in the books, is an artificial being, existing only in 



ARGUMENT. 423 

contemplation of law. It has perpetual succession; that is, it 
never dies. It has individuality as contra-distinguished from a 
partnership, which is merely an aggregation of individuals. A 
corporation is the legal owner of what has been appropriated 
for the enterprise for which the corporation was created, and it 
is the trustee of the corporators or stockholders. Stock is legiti- 
mately issued when it represents value which has been put in 
the corporation. When stock is issued without a corresponding 
value being put into the corporation that is water. Corpora- 
tions are needed. They are needed when associated capital is 
needed for the carrying out of any enterprise that is too great 
for individual effort. 

The next inquiry is, "What is a railroad corporation ? What is 
it and what are its duties? A railroad is a public corporation 
created for the benefit of the public. It is the duty of the cor- 
poration to accommodate the public at the lowest rates which 
will give them reasonable compensation. Again, when, if ever, 
is railroad consolidation justifiable ? I take the ground that rail- 
road consolidation is only justifiable in a continuous line, and 
in consolidating the branches of that continuous or trunk line. 
When that is done all the legitimate and proper benefits that 
can result from consolidation have accrued. Of course, where 
there are many short railroads in one continuous line, they can 
be operated cheaper as one road than they can as many different 
and independent roads. But I take the position that different 
systems of railroads, independent continuous lines, should never 
be consolidated. You then have all the evils that result from 
consolidation without any of the benefits. I maintain that no 
benefit would come from consolidating, for instance, the Fitch- 
burg with the Boston & Albany, two independent and distinct 
systems. Neither could aid the other in running the other. 
Nor should the Boston & Maine be consolidated with any other 
independent system. Then again, gentlemen, when lines are 
consolidated the reduction of expense should be saved to the 
public and not put into speculators' pockets. And again, when 
increased business brings in large profits and more than lawful 
compensation for existing stock, fares and freights should be 
reduced. Watered stock should not be permitted to take the 



424 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

increase of profits and so keep up fares and freights as liigh 
or higher than ever. These, gentlemen, are self-evident truths, 
and they are self-evident truths which I desire you to keep in 
mind during the entire course of the remarks which I am about 
to make. 

We have before us for consideration by this committee, and 
for final action by the Legislature, two bills. First, the Hazen 
bill. What is that? It provides for leasing railroads generally 
in the state to anybody. It would authorize the leasing of all 
the railroads in this state to the Boston & Maine. The bill also 
specially authorizes the leasing of the Northern Railroad and 
the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad to the Boston & Lowell 
Railroad, and undertakes to give that construction to the Colby 
bill. It is retrospective so far as it proposes to affect existing 
leases. 

What is the other bill, the Atherton bill? This is designed 
especially to enable the Concord Railroad and the Boston, Con- 
cord & Montreal Railroad to unite. And the purpose further 
is, that subsequent to the union there shall be a development of 
the central and northern portions of the state whose resources 
are now largely undeveloped. The idea is to develop the un- 
settled portions of Grafton County and of Coos County. It 
provides for the building of branches such as shall effect that 
purpose. Section 1 provides the mode in which the union may 
be effected by the votes of the stockholders of both corporations, 
upon terms which shall be approved by the Supreme Court ; thus 
putting it beyond all peradventure that the terms of the union 
will be such as they should be. I will only glance at some of the 
sections. Section 3 provides for the leasing of the Northern 
Railroad. Look at the situation of these roads, the Concord 
Railroad, the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad, and the 
Northern Railroad. Naturally they are parts of each other; and 
if there were no charters now, and the question of chartering 
were to come up before this body, there is no doubt but you 
would charter all three of those railroads as one. The bill makes 
a liberal provision for the Northern Railroad, the stock of which 
happens to be owned in Massachusetts and now in the interest 
of the Boston & Maine. But the stockholders belonging to New 



ARGUMENT. 425 

Hampshire are, as I understand it, friendly to this bill with the 
exception of its leading men here in New Hampshire. I do not 
undertake to say that Mr. Sulloway is in favor of it or that Mr. 
Todd is in favor of it; because I understand both to be in the 
ring that is going to absorb all these railroads. Section 10 pro- 
vides that immediately upon the union they shall proceed to the 
construction of these roads in northern New Hampshire, which 
everybody knows ought to have been built long ago, and which 
would have been built long ago had that greatest of railroad 
men ever in New Hampshire lived, John E. Lyon. (Applause.) 
But his unfortunate demise put an end to all progress in that 
locality. 

It is the purpose of this Atherton bill to go on and procure 
these developments which the lamented John E. Lyon intended 
to have carried out. Section 12 makes provision for the terms 
of the union, and particularly it sets forth the manner in which 
the different kinds of stock of the Boston, Concord & Montreal 
road and the stock in the Concord road shall stand in the new 
corporation. And it makes the provision that the old stock and 
the new stock in the Boston, Concord & Montreal corporation 
shall not draw any dividends at all until the entire existing debt 
of the corporations, and that means the debt of the Boston, Con- 
cord & Montreal, is paid. Well, I understand there has been 
some considerable comment made because if this union should 
take place even under the provisions of the Atherton bill the old 
and new stockholders in the Boston, Concord & Montreal Rail- 
road would sometime or other get a dividend. Gentlemen, that 
old stock is still more than half of it owned by the very men who 
paid it into the corporation at the very outset of the undertaking, 
or in the hands of the descendants of those who paid it in. And 
they have been waiting and have not got a cent of dividend nor 
a cent of interest for this money which was put in forty years 
ago, and the public have been enjoying the benefits of it for that 
forty years. They have been patiently waiting for a dividend. 
It seems that this conscientious Boston & Maine corporation and 
their attorneys here are terribly troubled because these men, 
who paid their money in forty years ago for the public benefit, 
and the public have ever since enjoyed it, are going to get a 



426 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

dividend. For my part, it seems to me that no more graceful 
act, if it can be done in a just and proper way — no more grace- 
ful act could be done than to let some of these old heroes and 
veterans feel a little dividend in their hands before they die. 
(Applause.) 

But my Brother Drew is exercised because he says there is a 
syndicate of twenty persons that have bought up what stock 
John E. Lyon used to hold, and Mr. Bell, Mr. Vose, and Mr. 
Harlow used to hold. They have bought it up, and he says that 
notwithstanding the guards in the Atherton bill, notwithstanding 
the facts that by the terms of the Atherton bill the contemplated 
improvements on the Concord Railroad shall be carried out (that 
is, that the new depot contemplated at Manchester shall be built, 
a twin sister of the Concord depot and better yet, and that the 
iron bridges upon the line of the road, some three or four of 
them, shall be constructed, and that the road in all respects shall 
be kept up, and that it shall be paid out of the earnings and not 
one dollar charged to the construction) and notwithstanding 
that it provides that not one dollar shall be paid on this old and 
new stock until the entire debt, nearly four millions more or less, 
of the Boston, Concord & Montreal road is paid — yet my 
Brother Drew says that if you join the Concord road and the 
Boston, Concord & Montreal road it will give such an impetus 
to business that, notwithstanding the Atherton bill brings down 
the fares to three cents a mile and freights in proportion, still 
there will be such a rush of business and the profits will be so 
great from the Boston, Concord & Montreal road if you allow 
this union, that this whole debt will be paid up in six years, 
and then you will have to pay a ten per cent, dividend on this 
old stock. Well, gentlemen, if that is so, is this syndicate such 
a wicked fellow that in order to cheat him out of dividends on 
stock which he bought at the market price and squarely and 
honestly paid for, you will keep all northern New Hampshire 
still a howling wilderness and stop the wheels of progress right 
where they are? If that is really so I think the syndicate will 
throw all their stock into the fire, and they won't ask you a cent 
for it. For it would be a great pity to have this little lump of 
stock stand in the way of these old veterans and their repre- 



ARGUMENT. 427 

sentatives, who put their money in and gave the public the 
benefit of it, getting a little dividend, as objection is made by 
these stock- waterers who have made their millions. "Well, gen- 
tlemen, I will not say any more now about the syndicate, because 
it is not in the line of my argument. But by and by, when I 
get to it, I will say something about it and about the gentlemen 
who have talked about it. (Applause.) 

I take the ground that the purpose of the Boston & Maine 
Railroad and its managers, as shown by the legislation they have 
obtained in Maine and that they tried to get in Massachusetts, 
and their acts, and the lease of the Boston & Lowell and the 
terms of that lease, and the acts of the Boston & Lowell and the 
similarity of the legislation obtained by them and the Boston & 
Maine are such that they are not to be trusted with the power 
given by he Hazen bill. The Boston & Maine Railroad has 
got from the state of Maine authority to buy the stock, indebted- 
ness and franchises of all the railroads in New Hampshire and 
Massachusetts that it gets a lease of, or operates by contract or 
through ownership of stock; and then after buying it to pay 
for it by issuing its own stock, and then to hold the corpora- 
tions it buys and their franchises and use them as the original 
grantees might. I claim that the Boston & Maine Railroad has 
now entered under the direction of its new regime upon a new 
era, and that new era commenced when its managers took a 
lease of the Eastern Railroad. Then they entered upon the 
business of stock watering, the effect of which every time is to 
put money into speculators' pockets and impose new burdens on 
the people. 

Gentlemen, I mean by stock watering to say that they are 
taxing in some form or other the public twice for the value they 
put into the corporation. That is what I mean by stock water- 
ing — that they are taxing the public twice for what is invested 
in the corporation. The law passed in Maine to which I referred 
was approved March 16, 1887, — recent legislation, you see, — 
and as that law shows its purpose on its face, I want especially 
to call your attention to it. I hold in my hand the "Acts and 
Resolves of the Legislature of the State of Maine, for the year 
1887." The act to which I refer is entitled ''An act relating 
to the Boston & Maine Railroad," and is as follows: 



428 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

"Section 1. The Boston & Maine Railroad is authorized to 
acquire by purchase the road, franchises and property of the 
Eastern Railroad Company; and after such acquisition and 
purchase, may also acquire by purchase the roads, franchises 
and properties of any railroad corporation whose roads are 
operated in Massachusetts or New Hampshire either by it or 
by said Eastern Railroad Company, under lease, contract, or. 
through ownership of stock." 

Then I skip some. I only read enough to show you what it 
is. ''For the purpose of facilitating and effecting the purchase 
of the road, franchises and properties of the corporations herein 
authorized to be purchased, or any of them, the said Boston & 
Maine Railroad may purchase the stock, bonds, and other obliga- 
tions, or any part thereof, of any of said corporations, and may 
from time to time" — here mark — "may from time to time in- 
crease its own capital stock to such an amount as may be agreed 
upon by itself and the selling corporation." That is the only 
limit on it. It may increase its stock to any amount that it may 
agree upon with the selling corporation. "May exchange its 
stock" — that is, the Boston & Maine may — "may exchange its 
stock, bonds, or notes for the stock, bonds, property, rights, and 
franchises, and in payment of the liabilities, of any of said pur- 
chased corporations. ' ' There, you see, gentlemen, the full length 
and breadth of what I stated the act to be. And then, to wind 
up with, "After the purchases herein authorized or any of them, 
said Boston & Maine Railroad shall have and enjoy all the rights, 
privileges, franchises and property theretofore had and enjoyed 
by the corporation whose road, franchises, and property it has 
purchased; and shall, in reference to said road, franchises, and 
property, be subject to its duties, debt, and liabilities." That 
is, it leaves them the owners of the corporation they buy, and 
the corporations in full operation precisely as they would have 
been if they were not purchased, and with the right to tax the 
public by virtue of the charters of those corporations to pay a 
dividend on the stock of those corporations and to pay the in- 
terest on the indebtedness of those corporations, and at the same 
time they have issued their own stock to pay for it, and they 
have the right to tax the public to pay dividends on that stock. 



ARGUMENT. 429 

Now, gentlemen, if that is not doubling right straight over the 
road, if it is not taxing the public twice for the same thing, I 
would like to have you show me what is. I put it to any gentle- 
man, attorney here for the Boston & Maine, to put this in any 
other light if he can. 

Now, gentlemen, let me put another question to any attorney 
of the Boston & Maine. What in this world did the Boston & 
Maine want to get this act for? Why did they want to buy these 
roads of which they had a lease already, or which they controlled 
by reason of a contract or ownership of stock? Why did they 
want it ? Can you imagine any other earthly reason except that 
they wanted to water up their stock? To issue more stock? 
Why, gentlemen, there isn't any earthly doubt about it. The 
whole object of it was to water up their own stock. They were 
already in control of those roads so far as any benefit or advan- 
tage to be derived from them was concerned. In that respect 
they were just as well off as they would be after they had bought 
those roads and paid therefor by an issue of their own stock. 

Suppose, gentlemen, we should come in here and ask you to 
pass such an act as that in favor of the Concord Railroad; ask 
you to pass a law here authorizing the Concord Railroad to pur- 
chase the Boston, Concord & Montreal, and to purchase its in- 
debtedness and to purchase its stock, bonds, and franchise, and 
pay for them by issuing the stock of the Concord Railroad; 
what a hue and cry you would have here, and justly, too. And 
is it any different because the Boston & Maine Railroad has done 
it, from what it would be if the Concord Railroad had done it? 
I would like those gentlement to specify the difference. I claim, 
on the other hand, that the Concord road and the Boston, Con- 
cord & Montreal road never watered their stock, never tried to 
water it, and don't intend to try to water it. (Applause.) 
Every dollar of the stock in both those roads has been paid 
for, and it went for the construction and equipment of the 
roads, — every dollar in both roads. They have been content to 
receive the dividends the law allows them on the original stock 
as it has stood, and as it stands today. And if they are permitted 
to unite, they don't ask you to water their stock. They ask no 
dividends only upon the stock they have, and they don't ask 



430 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

dividends upon the old stock they have, which has been paid 
for, until the road pays all the indebtedness and is able to pay 
such dividends. (Applause.) 

The Concord road has owned the Manchester & North Weare 
Railroad for some 20 or 30 years, and has built the Hooksett 
Branch. The Hooksett Branch was necessarily built for public 
accommodation, and the North Weare road was really taken on 
an indebtedness by the Concord Railroad, subject to many in- 
cumbrances which they have since extinguished and paid off. 
It has never been a road that paid beyond the expenses and re- 
pairs until quite recently. It is paying, I think, a little some- 
thing now. Properly enough, gentlemen, the Concord road 
might have asked for an enlargement of their capital stock in 
order to cover the expense of building the Hooksett Branch and 
the purchase of the North Weare Railroad. But they did not 
do it. And the public are enjoying the benefit of the Hooksett 
Branch and of the North Weare Railroad, and are not paying in 
any form one single cent for it. The Concord Railroad is tax- 
ing the public for nothing except for its original stock, which 
represents the original construction and equipment. 

I claim that the Concord Railroad and the Boston, Concord & 
Montreal Railroad offer to unite on the terms in the Atherton 
bill in the interest of the people of New Hampshire. That bill 
means low fares and low freights. It means the development 
of the resources of the state, taking its lumber to market, and 
developing its water powers. It means additional facilities and 
better accommodations for our summer boarders, and will bring 
us a great many more of them. 

Mr. Mellen says that it is no object to cut down fares for sum- 
mer boarders, for this pleasure travel ; because, he says, if a man 
has made up his mind to go up to New Hampshire it will not 
make any odds whether the fare is six cents a mile or two cents 
a mile, he will go all the same. Now, I take issue with Mr. Mel- 
len on that. I have some knowledge and experience on that 
subject, and some observation the same as you all have and as 
much as Mr. Mellen has, and my experience, my observation is, 
that there is not a class of people that is more tender and more 
affected by low fares than these same pleasure travelers. They 



ARGUMENT. 431 

haven't got anything else to do, and they will go for fun, and 
they will go anywhere where it will cost the least. That was 
my observation last winter in regard to the pleasure travel of 
this country. There were excursion trains to California, a very 
cheap fare; it did not cost much to go there. But there was 
nothing of the kind to Florida. If a man went down to Florida 
he had to pay regular full fare down and back, and as he always 
had to. The result of it was that all the pleasure travel, this 
floating stuff that rides on the cars, they all went to California 
last winter. (Laughter.) Now, Mr. Mellen comes in here and 
tells us that we are not going to get four times as many boarders 
and as many folks to come up to the White Mountains and in 
the vicinity of the mountains when we don't charge them but 
two cents a mile as we do when we charge five. I think I know 
about that, and so I think you do. Probably I may have to 
refer to some other things Mr. Mellen said. I claim that every 
man who is a friend of New Hampshire is a friend of the Ather- 
ton bill — that is, if he understands it. (Applause.) So far as 
the mere pecuniary interest, the dollars and cents, are concerned, 
the Concord Railroad stockholders are not helped by the Ather- 
ton bill. They could sell out to this hungry crowd of monopo- 
lists and speculators at their own figures. (Laughter and ap- 
plause. ) But instead of that the Concord Railroad stands upon 
its integrity and tenders its road and all its resources and its 
credit to the state in this bill, to be used in building up towns 
in the heart of the state, and building new railroads and extend- 
ing facilities into the primeval forests of Coos and of eastern 
Grafton. I have no doubt where the people are, where they must 
be, in this controversy. But we are met here by all manner of 
statement from the Boston & Maine. They tell us that our talk 
is buncombe and that talk is cheap, and that we are making pre- 
tensions in favor of the state that don't mean anything more 
than their own cheap talk does. (Laughter.) They charge 
illiberality on the Concord Railroad, and that it has a surplus 
that belongs to the state. Their effort seems to be to excite such 
a prejudice against the Concord Railroad that you will refuse 
to take it for the benefit of the state and give it away to these 
hungry speculators. (Applause.) 



432 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Now, let us look at the state of things a little, — look at the 
facts and the figures. They say we are stock-waterers, too. That 
is another charge they make. Let us see who the stock-waterers 
are. Which of these railroads maintains its capital in its origi- 
nal integrity and solidity, and which has watered it up? Let 
us have a little business about this. (Laughter.) 

These charges of illegality against the Concord Railroad of 
an illegal surplus, and that they have not any terminals, they 
have made over and over again here. Well, now, gentlemen, as 
this discussion goes along I want to have you remember, and 
above all things bear in mind, what the material question is here, 
to wit. Will you take this rich property, this Concord Railroad 
for the state, or will you give it up to speculators? That is the 
question. Let us keep that before our eyes all the time. Well, 
now, in the first place it is charged that the Concord Railroad 
has been illiberal about passes. It is claimed that they have 
the reputation for being illiberal. Now, if they have such a 
reputation, who is responsible? From 1873 to 1884 this road 
was in the hands of the Philistines. Why, the managers of the 
Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad and of the Northern Rail- 
road put their heads together and bought up stock enough and 
got men enough who owned stock to go in and elect two directors 
of the Northern road and two directors of the Boston, Concord 
& Montreal road, and they ruled the Concord road from 1873 to 
1884. And it was only by the court interfering with this illegal 
operation and unhorsing them, it was only in that way that the 
Concord road got the shackles off from them as they did in the 
annual stockholders' meeting of 1884. And they had a big fight 
over it. They came on with their battalions, with their stock, 
Sherburne, Sulloway, and Todd, with the stock of the Northern 
Railroad to vote, notwithstanding the opinion of the court had 
already been rendered to the effect that it was illegal for them to 
do so. It was only by the injunction of the court served on them 
forbidding their voting that stock that they were withheld from 
voting it; and of course it unhorsed them. And the Concord 
road threw off the shackles and elected a proper board that 
represented the Concord road. 

Ever since the Concord Railroad came into the hands of its 



ARGUMENT. 433 

stockholders proper in 1884, the men who were then defeated — 
Sherburne, that man who is now an exile beyond the seas, the 
man who lost a hundred thousand dollars so strangely, Mr. 
Sherburne, the president of the Northern road and his associates 
and sympathizers, the Boston & Lowell Railroad, Mr. Mellen 
and Mr. Morey, and the Boston & Maine Railroad since the lease 
they took of the Boston & Lowell (they were pretty good friends 
of the Concord road up to that time, the Boston & Maine were) 
— since they took that lease of the Boston & Lowell have all 
united and been very industrious in circulating the information 
to everybody that the Concord Railroad is swinish, pinching, 
stingy, old f ogyish, and always was ; won 't give any passes ; that 
the superintendent, Mr. Chamberlin, is not a Chesterfield in 
his manners, is not a man of polished manners, and he snubs 
folks when they ask for favors. (Laughter.) 

Well, now, gentlemen, let me ask, Is that any reason, this old 
fogyism and this having a wicked superintendent, — is that any 
reason why you should take away from the people this fine 
property and give it to speculators? I want to know if that is 
any reason why you should do it? Give it to speculators who 
have not either plowed or sowed to get it? Who have no claim, 
right, or title to it? Is it any reason why you should refuse to 
take this property for the use of the state, tendered to you in 
the Atherton bill ? 

The next charge of this hungry crowd, that are hungering to 
swallow up the Concord road, is that the Concord road has a 
surplus that belongs to the state. Now if that is so, which I deny 
in any sense — but suppose that it were so — is that any reason 
why you should not take the whole of the Concord Railroadfor 
the use of the state, because a part of it already belongs to the 
state? or any reason why you should give the state's property 
and the corporation's property, the whole concern, away to 
speculators? A moment's sober consideration demonstrates the 
absurdity of this being an argument against the Atherton bill, 
Now what is there to this assertion that the Concord Railroad 
has a surplus ? Mr. Aldrich says that the Concord road has got 
a surplus of two millions. What does he mean? He did not 
tell us how he makes out that surplus, I don't know of any 

28 



434 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

railroad that has got a surplus proper, what I understand by a 
surplus, except the Northern Railroad. 

I know that the Northern road pinched out of their stock- 
holders, and did not give them dividends when they ought to, 
enough so they got saved up there under the administration of 
Sherburne and his associates, and have it saved up there now, 
somewhere, a million and a half of dollars; and they are doing 
a pretty nice kind of banking business with it. "When the direc- 
tors or any of them want to speculate a little in stocks, they just 
go to their bank and take the money out and speculate. Well, I 
call that a surplus. But there is nothing of that kind in the 
Concord Railroad. And if they mean by surplus that the prop- 
erty of the Concord Railroad is worth two millions or more — 
if that is what Mr. Aldrich means that the Concord road is worth 
today, take all its property, that it is worth today two millions 
more than the amount of its original capital stock and its original 
equipment for which the stock was issued, w^hich is a million and 
a half dollars — I am inclined to think that is true. But is that 
a surplus that belongs to the state? If so, where does the state 
get its right to take it any more than to use it as it is now using 
it? And today they are using it. Today the state is using it, 
and is not paying a single cent for it. All that the Concord 
road is now taxing the public for is just its legal dividend on its 
original stock of a million and a half dollars. It don't owe a 
cent ; it is paying no interest to anybody ; and the surplus, what 
Mr. Aldrich calls the surplus and belonging to the state, which 
the road is worth more than the million and a half of dollars, the 
state is using today. Mr. Eastman came here and gave the par- 
ticulars somewhat as to what this surplus is, — that is, it is the 
North Weare Railroad, the Hooksett Branch, the Concord depot 
down here, I suppose it is the depot down at Manchester that is 
going to be when it is built, and the iron bridges ; that they are 
all surplus, because I suppose they might have got along without 
the North Weare Railroad, and they might have got along with- 
out the Concord depot, and because that all these things have 
been added to the road since the time when its original capital 
stock was fixed. But, gentlemen, you see that the result of it is, 
that they have been purchased and paid for out of the earnings, 



ARGUMENT. 436 

no debt contracted for them, and the capacity of the road for 
taxing the public for dividends being limited barely to its capital 
stock, the public is getting the use of all this surplus in the most 
effective form that it possibly can without paying one single cent 
for it. 

Why, Mr. Mellen says that the Concord Railroad is earning 
20 or 30 per cent. Well, so it is earning that according to his 
way of bookkeeping. He charges every new engine that is 
bought to take the place of an old one, and every old depot that 
is built over, and every new side track that is laid, to the con- 
struction account, to the permanent indebtedness of the road, 
and he issues the bonds of the road to pay for it. According to 
the bookkeeping of the Concord Railroad they pay as they go. 
When they build a depot they pay for it, when they build a 
bridge they pay for it, and have done so ever since the original 
construction account was closed. When they have bought a new 
engine they have paid for it without charging it to the con- 
struction account. But, of course, if they should charge every 
depot they build and every engine they buy to the construction 
account so they would pay 20 or 30 per cent., they would, instead 
of being clear of debt today, have a debt of ten millions after 
the same fashion that the Boston & Lowell have got it. 
(Applause.) 

Why, gentlemen, this Concord Railroad is a bonanza. It is a 
bright and shining star of the first magnitude among all the 
railroads in this country. There is not another one like it. They 
started it in the very beginning. The men that started the 
Concord Railroad started it on Doctor Franklin's maxim of 
"pay as you go." They never charged to the construction 
account anything after they closed the original construction 
account in 1848 — there has never been a charge made to con- 
struction. There never has been an increase of their capital 
stock either by adding to their dividend stock or by charging 
to permanent indebtedness. They have paid for everything as 
they went along. The result of it is that they have got the best 
railroad in this country; and they have confessedly during all 
this time run their road for cheaper fares and cheaper freights 
than any other railroad in New England, and today they don't 



436 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

owe a dollar. The Boston & Lowell have acted on a different 
plan. They chartered their road originally at two million dol- 
lars, and they went along very well for a long period of time; 
but they took at last to charging to construction and to enlarging 
their stock, and now today they have stock and indebtedness, 
instead of two million, fourteen million, and are so blowed up 
and bloated that they could not stand alone any longer, and they 
had to go and lease themselves. (Applause.) 

Why, gentlemen, you have had experience in business. Let 
a couple of farmers start with a hundred acres of land side by 
side. Let one of them go on the maxim, "Pay as you go," and let 
the other fellow run into debt as he goes, and what is the result ? 
You have seen that sort of thing done over and over again. It 
has invariably this result: that the fellow that gets things 
charged to permanent indebtedness, and charges to his con- 
struction account and gives his own note or his bond, why, when 
ten or fifteen years run by, his farm goes on a mortgage; and 
the other man, who pays as he goes, is around independent, 
hands in his pockets, and has got money to let. And it is just 
the same with railroading. When you get a true principle, it 
applies in one sort of business just the same as it does in another 
sort of business. And if you have got an honest business that 
has honest results, and you adopt the maxim of pay as you go, 
success is certain. On the other hand, if you adopt the policy 
of the Boston & Lowell Railroad, why you will come out as the 
Boston & Lowell has ; and I have more to say about that, also, by 
and by. 

Now, if there really is anything down there in the Concord 
Railroad that belongs to the state why don't some fellow start 
up and go and take it in behalf of the state? There the books 
are. It is pretty certain evidence that there has not been any 
stealing in that concern, the fact that they have got the property 
to show. Generally, where a concern is gutted and everything of 
value is taken out of it, it has a pretty rickety-rackety look to it 
on the outside and inside too. But where things are cleaned up 
and everything is saved you see things looking just about as 
they do on the Concord Railroad today. No debts — nothing. 
Where is the wrong here? What does Mr. Aldrich's charge 



ARGUMENT. 437 

amount to when he asserts that the Concord Railroad has a sur- 
plus? And what does it amount to when Mr. Mellen says that 
they earn 20 or 30 per cent? Why, it amounts to just this: 
Mr. Aldrich says, in effect, that you are doing a great wrong 
because you let the people have the use of two thirds of the 
property you have got, and you don 't charge them a cent for it. 
You are doing them a great wrong because you don't get any- 
thing out of them for it. If we had it, if the Boston & Maine 
had it, we would water up that stock so that the public would 
pay for every cent they have. (Laughter and applause.) 

Well, what about Mr. Mellen 's charge as to the 20 or 30 per 
cent. ? Why, it amounts to this — that you pay for everything 
as you go along. If you build a bridge and pay for it, you don't 
charge it to construction. If you let me in there and let me 
keep the books, I would pay you 30 per cent, very quickly. 
When I build a depot, I would charge it to construction. I 
would do as I do down on the Boston & Lowell road. That is 
the way I do down there. Well, gentlemen, don 't you think that 
these men must be pretty hard up, these stock-waterers, to come 
all the way up here from Massachusetts to find fault with the 
Concord Railroad on this account ? It seems to me I never heard 
of such a thing before. Here is a public corporation, created 
to serve the public, and under obligations to serve the public all 
right at the lowest rates practicable, seeking only reasonable 
compensation from them. Why, you furnish the public with 
two thirds of all you get, and you don't charge them a cent for 
it, and you must be stealing. You cannot be honest. There is 
something wrong. So there is something wrong if the Boston & 
Lowell system is right; if it is right to charge your debts and 
charge your expenses to permanent indebtedness, and to divide 
your earnings among your stockholders. If that is the right kind 
of railroading, then the Concord railroading is wrong. But I 
maintain that the Concord Railroad mode is right, to pay as you 
go; and I maintain that it is dishonest to pay a dividend to 
stockholders without earnings enough to pay your expenses, 
and then to charge a part of your expenses over to permanent 
indebtedness, to the construction account. (Applause.) 

There has been a great deal of slurring about this new depot 



438 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

down here at Concord; that it was a wicked thing to have so 
much of a depot. I don't know how you look at it, but it seems 
to me that here is a structure for all time; it is going down to 
our posterity ; generations and generations yet unborn are going 
to look upon that depot, are going to be accommodated by it 
precisely as you are accommodated. And I think it was economy, 
and of the rarest kind, the best kind of economy, when they were 
about it, to erect a depot which would stay there and be a monu- 
ment for future generations to look at; and they can look back 
a hundred years hence on the present generation as being a very 
respectable generation of people to have erected so good a depot 
as that. It is a public building. You New Hampshire men have 
just as good a right to go down there and look at that depot aa 
your property, as public property, as the property of New 
Hampshire, and take pride, feel a surge of honest state pride 
as you look at it, just as you do when you look at this building 
in which we are now. That building was built and was per- 
fected, and the improvements now going on have been devised, 
by this same board of directors that was elected in 1884, and 
about whom Mr. Sherburne and his associates, and the Boston & 
Lowell and Mr. Morey, and Mr. Mellen, and the Boston & Maine 
since they got the lease of the Boston & Lowell have been so 
busy in circulating the information as to their old fogyish habits. 
And I don't know whether they particularly characterized that 
depot as a piece of old fogyism or not, but probably. Well, 
gentlemen, I cannot stop to refer to these things. We have had 
every sort of story about the Concord Railroad. It seems that 
they have not committed all the sins; the Boston & Lowell have 
piled their own sins on to them. For instance, they have been 
clamoring about the great abuse done the men who own the stone 
quarries at Concord; that the Concord Railroad have pinched 
the souls out of them, and would not carry any of their stone to 
market. And it turns out as a matter of fact that the Concord 
Railroad has no control whatever over that business; that the 
whole business and whole responsibility for any outrage that 
may have been done there rests upon the Boston & Lowell, be- 
cause that freight is put aboard the cars on the Claremont road, 
which is run by the Boston & Lowell. 



ARGUMENT. 439 

Then there are other things. My Brother Briggs has traveled 
all over the shores of time to hunt up something with which he 
could smirch the Concord Railroad. One thing, he asks pretty- 
derisively — if the Concord Railroad ever aided any poor road? 
"Why, they are awful stingy fellows. Now, on that score, they 
certainly have taken the North Weare road. That certainly was 
poor enough. They took charge of it and made a pretty decent 
road of it and run it for the accommodation of the people, and 
they have not charged them a cent for it. Then, again, when the 
Portsmouth road was built they contributed largely to its build- 
ing — I think fifty or a hundred thousand dollars. When the 
Suncook road was built they contributed there. When the Sugar 
River Railroad was built, which I believe is a part of the Con- 
cord & Claremont, they gave fifty thousand dollars, with the 
authority of the state. That don't look so very bad. Then he 
tells about tearing up the rails over on the North Weare road on 
Sunday. I believe that was a freak of one man only. As to the 
tearing up of the rails, he had a perfect right to do it. An act 
of the Legislature had been passed authorizing it to be done. 
The fact that he went over on Sunday and did it, I never ap- 
proved of that myself. (Laughter.) That was a good while 
ago, and I don't think honestly, gentlemen, that you ought to 
lay that up against the Concord Railroad. 

Then he goes at great length into the act of 1867 and the liti- 
gation which the Boston & Maine Railroad was at the bottom of. 
And then he takes up the contract of 1865. Now all that was 
a great while ago ; and, of course, on all such questions there are 
two sides to every one of them. Why, I could read to the com- 
mittee something here from what Mr. Quincy says about the 
Boston & Maine during this time. This is the annual report of 
the directors of the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad for 
the year 1859. I will read only a little sketch here which will 
show what he thinks of the Boston & Maine. He is complaining 
about them. He says that the "Boston & Maine is a rich and 
powerful corporation." This was a great while ago. I suppose 
they had money then ; if they had saved it and had not watered 
their stock, they would have had more solid business than they 
have now. "The Boston & Maine is a rich and powerful cor- 



440 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

poration, making handsome dividends and having a large sur- 
plus. More than half of its road being within the limits of this 
state, making combinations with roads lying entirely within the 
state of Massachusetts, — with the exception of the Nashua & 
Lowell, whose road is but eight miles in our state, — thereby con- 
trolling both avenues to Boston, and the effect of which is to 
crush our road, arrogantly affirming that it is not subject to the 
laws of New Hampshire, and consequently we can have tio 
redress." 

This is where the Boston & Maine Railroad was in 1859, ac- 
cording to Mr, Josiah Quincy. I take it that there are a great 
many men that have not forgotten him — one of the sharpest 
and brightest men that ever lived in New Hampshire, a man 
who knew what he was talking about as well as any other man. 
Josiah Quincy signs this report. John T. Coffin, another good 
man, John E. Lyon, another big man, Alexander H. Tilton, a 
good old man, John L. Rix, and J. R. Pitman, John E. Lyon's 
faithful lieutenant who always stood by him — well these men all 
subscribed that, and say that the Boston & Maine at that day 
was arrogantly affirming that it was not subject to the laws of 
New Hampshire, and defying them, notwithstanding their out- 
rages, to help themselves if they could. Well, I shall have some- 
thing more to say by and by about the Boston & Maine not 
being responsible, and being a foreign corporation. They made 
a great how-do-you-do ; but I will say right here now, that this 
is the first time in the history of that corporation when they 
have come here and admitted that they were a domestic and were 
not a foreign corporation. I believe my Brother Marston over 
here is one of the men that pounded that into them. (Laughter 
and applause.) 

Well, now, about this contract of 1865. Why, gentlemen, that 
contract, whatever there might have been to it and whatever 
just grounds they had of complaint, was pronounced by the 
court tp be void, and the parties to it not under obligation to 
abide by it any longer than they chose. Either party could 
revoke it at its own option. After that opinion was delivered, 
I think somewhere about 1869, the roads all went on contentedly 
and peaceably under that same contract, settling their accounts 



ARGUMENT. 441 

in conformity to it, up to 1873. And in 1873 these upper roads, 
the Boston, Concord & Montreal and the Northern road, took 
possession of the Concord Railroad and ruled it for eleven 
years. And they still went on — these very men who according 
to the account of Brother Briggs were suffering so enormously 
by reason of that contract — went on voluntarily under that con- 
tract from 1873 up to 1877. And then it was abrogated; and 
not by the action of the Concord Railroad or the upper railroads, 
but by the action of the Boston & Lowell itself, who gave notice 
that they abrogated the contract. And a new contract was 
made. 

Now, gentlemen, it is plain enough that whatever may be said 
on that score, and whatever claim was made by the upper roads 
that there was no solidity in it, that they never dared when the 
upper roads came into the possession of the Concord road, to 
pay a cent on it, and they never dared to bring a suit on it ; and 
the thing is more than twenty years old, and no suit has ever 
been brought upon it and no claim ever made upon it; and the 
very contract out of which it grew has been abrogated volun- 
tarily by all the parties. Why, gentlemen, it was a big thing 
to scream about for three or four long hours, and read old re- 
ports about it, as my Brother Briggs did. They must have been 
hard up for timber to talk about, it seems to me. 

There is another claim that has been made here, as baseless 
and groundless as any dream or vision that ever was started in 
this world. And it has been harped upon all along. And that 
is, that the doings of the Boston & Lowell Railroad on the Bos- 
ton, Concord & Montreal and on the Northern road illustrate 
the beneficial effects of the Colby bill ; that the Boston & Lowell 
by reducing fares have developed and built up new business; 
that the Boston & Lowell have corrected the abuses of Mr. Lyon 
and Mr. Dodge, and have made great improvements on Mr. 
Lyon and Mr. Dodge. And then, in the next place, they say 
that the Boston & Lowell, having thus been tried and having 
done so well, it follows that the Boston & Maine will do well 
also. Now it seems to me that there never w£is such a tissue of 
false assumptions. In the first place, they claim that the doings 
of the Boston & Lowell Railroad on the Boston, Concord & 



442 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Montreal and on the Northern illustrate the beneficent effects 
of the Colby bill. The Boston & Lowell did not get the North- 
ern road, they did not get the Boston, Concord & Montreal road, 
by virtue of the Colby bill, but they got them in spite of the 
Colby hill. The Colby bill was not designed for them. On the 
contrary, it was designed by the framers of the Colby bill that 
the Boston & Lowell should not be allowed to come into the 
state at all. And everybody that is at all cognizant of the do- 
ings of those times knows it just as well as I know it. Why, gen- 
tlemen, it is in the record of the Journal; the application that 
was made by the Boston & Lowell at that session, to the same 
railroad committee that reported the Colby bill, to confirm the 
lease of the Nashua & Lowell to the Boston & Lowell, was de- 
nied, and that committee, among other reasons, particularly 
recited one reason why they would not confirm it. That reason 
was this — that if they confirmed that lease, it would give the 
Boston & Lowell Railroad a standing in New Hampshire and 
the right to lease its railroads, which they, the committee, said 
they had intended to guard carefully against, in framing the 
Colby bill, or words to that effect. It is a well known fact that 
the Boston & Lowell Railroad was here with able counsel. Colonel 
George, from the beginning to the end of the session of 1883, 
fighting the Colby bill with all the means in their power. 

Well, then, the next point is that the Boston & Lowell, by re- 
ducing fares, have developed and built up new business on the 
Boston, Concord & Montreal road. Now, gentlemen, I claim 
to know something about what happens up on the Boston, Con- 
cord & Montreal road, for I live up there ; and I know the gen- 
tlemen who are members from that section of the state know 
about things up there as well as I do, and they know that what- 
ever new business has ever been started up there was started by 
Mr. Lyon and Mr. Dodge. Since the Boston & Lowell road went 
up there, there has been no new business started to my knowledge 
and I don't know of any new hotel that has been built on any of 
the locations where there are summer resorts, like Bethlehem 
and places of that character. There may have been one or two 
built out on Sugar Hill, but if so they were projected before 
ever the Boston & Lowell got up there, and it was by no man- 



ARGUMENT. 443 

ner of means because they went there that they were built. Why 
the business in Plymouth has fallen off, and I don't know of a 
solitary place up there, I don't know of a single lumber concern, 
or of a single business enterprise of any sort, that has been 
started through the Boston & Lowell Railroad. It is a perfect 
myth, this declaration that has been made and harped on. You 
have seen Mr. Ira Whitcher on the stand here, and you have 
seen Mr. Brown. They are solid men of that section of the coun- 
try. Probably either one of them does more freighting in one 
month than all of those who have been here on the stand on the 
part of the Boston & Maine do in a whole year. This talk of 
the wonderfully beneficent work that the Boston & Lowell has 
.done up on the line of that road is "all in your eye." (Laugh- 
ter.) This talk that they have made improvements on the road 
Mr. Dodge and Mr. Lyon built, or the idea that if Mr. Lyon 
had lived up to this time there would not be a better state of 
things all through that section than there is now, is the most 
unjust and idle thing to say in this world. People of Grafton 
and Coos Counties who can ever forget John E. Lyon and Jo- 
seph A. Dodge, will forget the mother who bore them and the 
father who nurtured and brought them up to manhood. (Ap- 
plause.) They exercised a paternal jurisdiction over that whole 
country. If a man wanted to start in business, to build a saw- 
mill or anything of that kind, they would carry his iron and 
necessary machinery for him without any charge. If a man 
wanted to start a boarding house, he could get his furniture 
carried up there for half charge or no charge at all. And so 
they were at work all the time stimulating new enterprises, 
building up new hotels, new boarding houses, and new sawmills, 
and new business of various sorts and kinds, even lending par- 
ties money to help them along. And yet they talk about this 
Boston & Lowell Railroad superseding these men and making 
an improvement on them, and that they found that their charges 
were outrageous and that they cut them down. "Why, gentle- 
men, they may nominally have cut down their tariff. That is 
so; but, as I say, Mr. Dodge and Mr. Lyon exercised a paternal 
oversight over the people up there; they saw what the people 
needed and what they had got to have, and they did it for 



444 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

them. Talk with Mr. Ira Whitcher and see what he thinks about 
the Boston & Lowell, and not with these cheap fellows whom 
they have bought with passes, and who are yelling and making 
such a noise. Their talk isn't of any account. Talk with the 
solid men, and see what they will tell you about the Boston & 
Lowell's great work. It is all nonsense, and it is "all in your 
eye." (Laughter.) There never was anything more preposter- 
ous. It is mere gas. Of course they had to cut down their fares 
somewhat, but it seems, according to the account, that they cut 
them down very much as the Boston & Maine issued their mile- 
age tickets — when they cut down the fare per mile they made 
more miles. (Laughter). And when the Boston & Lowell cut 
down the freight on a thousand feet of lumber they made a 
less number of feet a thousand. (Laughter.) 

Well, now they assume because the Boston & Lowell did well 
up there, when they had a club right over their heads — they 
knew when they went up there that it was in violation of law; 
nobody understood it any better than the Boston & Lowell man- 
agers; and they knew when a suit was brought contesting the 
legality of their lease, their only chance of staying there was 
by worming themselves in some way or other into the good graces 
of the people — that the Boston & Maine will do well. But you 
know, 

' ' When the devil was sick, the devil a saint would be, 
But when the devil got well, the devil a saint was he." 

Now, while the Boston & Lowell were up there with a club 
right over their heads, they were saints, probably, as much as 
they could be. But when the Boston & Lowell, or the Boston & 
Maine gets firmly in the saddle up there, why, "when the devil 
got well, the devil a saint was he," and I think a devil of a 
saint either one of them would be then. (Laughter.) It is 
perfectly idle to say that because the Boston & Lowell ran the 
road well, supposing they did run it well during the time and 
under the circumstances when they ran it, therefore the Boston 
& Maine will run it well when they are firm and sure in the 
saddle. 

Now let us look a little at Mr. Morey of the Boston & Lowell 
Railroad, and look a little at his bookkeeping and what he has 



ARGUMENT, 445 

done. Because there is not any doubt, gentlemen, about the way 
and manner in which the books of the Boston & Lowell Railroad 
Company have been kept, and they have been kept on this prin- 
ciple — to pay a dividend anyhow (I mean since Mr. Morey 
came into the management, since 1883) pay a dividend anyhow, 
and then pay the expenses out of what earnings remain, or, if 
there is not enough remaining to pay them out of the earnings, 
charge the balance of the expenses to the construction account. 

Well, now, it is pretty hard, of course, to track out railroad 
accounts, but here is a very good and a very certain test. On 
pages 10 and 11, and then on pages 217 and 218 of their report 
for 1886, the railroad commissioners of Masaschusetts go into 
an analyzation, and they show, according to the reports of the 
different roads in Massachusetts^ how much it costs to run a 
train-mile. That is, they take the whole number of train-miles 
run on the entire road, and they take the amount paid for ex- 
penses and divide it by the number of train-miles, and that 
gives the cost per train-mile. Well, now, taking the Boston & 
Lowell, we find the cost per train-mile on that road is sixty-five 
cents, whereas for all the other railroads of Massachusetts the 
charge varies from fifteen to thirty cents more per train-mile. 
You take the lowest one of them, and take the difference per 
train-mile between the sixty-five cents of the Boston & Lowell 
and what the lowest one of them charges per train-mile — 
take the difference, and it would amount to a sum much more 
than the dividend which the Boston & Lowell pays. This shows 
that if they had paid all their expenses out of the earnings, it 
would have consumed all their earnings, and they would not 
have had one cent left to pay out in dividends. 

As collateral to that is the fact that in the years previous to 
Mr. Morey 's management, the Boston & Lowell Railroad did not 
pay a dividend at all. There were years in which they did not 
pay any dividend, and then they paid a dividend of one or two 
per cent.; and I think for the ten years preceding Mr. Morey 's 
management they never, in any one year, paid more than four 
per cent., and there were years and years when they did not 
pay any dividends at all. But the cost of running the road was 
then the same per train-mile, or about the same, as on the other 



446 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

roads. It is perfectly idle to say that the Boston & Lowell road 
ran their trains cheaper after 1883, because they then ran the 
roads up here in New Hampshire. Of course, they could not 
run a train-mile in New H)ampshire, over the steep grades here 
cheaper than they could in Massachusetts on the level grades 
there. It is perfectly idle to say they could, for it could not be 
done. 

Then in connection with that is the fact that from 1883 down 
to the present time, the permanent indebtedness and the stock of 
the road was being added to. The stock of the Boston & Lowell 
road since 1883 has been increased about $2,000,000, and the per- 
manent indebtedness a like amount. Indeed, the total indebted- 
ness of the road from 1883 up to the present time has been in- 
creased about $6,000,000. Their real capital has been increased 
from $8,000,000 up to $14,000,000. To be sure, Mr. Mellen at- 
tempts to explain that by the wild-cat roads that they bought, 
but that does not account for it all, even if they paid for them 
at the prices that he names. 

The fact that just as soon as Mr. Morey gets the road there is 
a change in the cost of running a train-mile, and there is a 
change in the addition to the permanent indebtedness from what 
existed before, shows pretty plainly that what I charged upon 
him, as to a distinction between his mode of keeping accounts 
and the mode of keeping accounts on the Concord road, is ex- 
actly true. And if you would apply his method of bookkeeping 
to the Concord road — Mr. Mellen did not explain how the Con- 
cord road earned twenty or thirty per cent., but I can tell you — 
apply his method of bookkeeping and charge every new engine, 
and every bridge that is rebuilt, to (Construction, then you would 
have your twenty or thirty per cent. I want to have you under- 
stand, gentlemen, the distinct modes of bookkeeping employed 
by the Boston & Lowell Railroad and by the Concord Railroad. 
The Boston & Lowell road first pays its dividend and then pays 
what expenses it can out of the balance of the earnings, and 
then, if that don't pay all the expenses, charges the balance of 
the expenses right over to construction. On the Concord road, 
from the beginning, the law was made — and they have not dared 
to depart from it through all the dynasties that have ruled over 



ARGUMENT. 447 

that corporation ; even during the time that it was in the hands 
of the Philistines while the Boston, Concord & Montreal and the 
Northern road ruled it, they did not dare to depart from that 
fundamental law — Pay as you go. And they always have 
paid, and not a cent of indebtedness has ever been incurred by 
the Concord road. 

But I will show you, gentlemen, how the thing might very 
easily have been worked. There was a period of time, from 
1850 up to 1867, when the Concord road did not pay ten per 
cent, dividends. The dividends got down as low as five per cent, 
in some of the years, and six per cent., and even the stock of 
the Concord road, the par being fifty dollars, dropped down to 
thirty or forty dollars per share. But during all that time the 
Concord road paid their bills. They did not charge anything to 
construction. If there was not money enough to pay a ten per 
cent, dividend, they simply paid what rate they could. Now, 
gentlemen, suppose that in 1850, which was the first year when 
they fell short of a ten per cent, dividend, instead of charging 
nothing to construction, they had charged all their new build- 
ings and bridges and repairs to permanent indebtedness, charged 
it to the construction account, and paid their ten per cent, 
dividends, and so on the next year and the next year ; they would 
have paid their ten per cent, every year up to now, and there 
would have been what the Lowell road has today, a permanent 
indebtedness against the Concord road of six, eight or ten mil- 
lions of dollars. That is what the Concord road would have 
had, what the Lowell road has, and what the Boston & Maine 
has against it today, a permanent indebtedness of $9,000,000. 
There are three millions and a half of bonds standing against 
the Boston & Maine Railroad today, that pay seven per cent, in- 
terest. I don't know where those bonds are, but I imagine they 
are somewhere near the government, close by the government 
of the corporation. (Applause and laughter.) 

Well, Mr. Mellen gives us another pretty good thing — I don 't 
know where he got it — but he says, why, no matter if you put 
all the railroads in the country into the hands of one man, or 
into the hands of one corporation, that would not blot out com- 
petition. Competition will exist all the same, he says. For, he 



448 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

says, there are potatoes raised down in Maine and up here in 
New Hampshire, and they are just as truly competitors as if 
there were forty railroads, because a railroad from northern 
New Hampshire has got to carry the potatoes down to Boston at 
a rate which will enable the farmer who raises them to sell them 
in the Boston market at a profit in competition with the potatoes 
from Maine, or he will not raise them. Well, gentlemen, I never 
supposed we ever could be deprived of that sort of competition. 
I have always supposed I should have the privilege of going 
afoot if I wanted to, rather than ride and pay the fare. I have 
supposed we would have that competition anyhow! and I have 
supposed that I had the glorious privilege of saying that I 
won't raise a bushel of anything, nor manufacture any lumber, 
and send it to market unless I have a mind to. And it seems, 
when you come to skin it down, that Mr. Mellen's competition 
is that you shall have the privilege of being skinned right down 
to going afoot; that you shall have the privilege of going afoot 
and not sending anything to market, provided you had rather 
do that and do no business at all. But that is what I call no 
competition whatever. There is no such thing as competition, 
unless the man who has got the lumber, or who has got any- 
thing which he wants to send to market, has two ways in which 
he can send it. This competition between the man and the car- 
rier, so he can pay his fare or go afoot, or so he can pay his 
freight or not send anything, is a glorious privilege which I be- 
lieve there is not power enough this side of God Almighty to 
deprive men of. 

Perhaps I will say a word here concerning this talk that has 
been made to the effect that the Concord Railroad is concealing 
money, and that the Concord Railroad has property which be- 
longs to the state. There is nothing there that the state has 
any right to take excepting under the charter; and under the 
charter, the state has the right to take the property of the cor- 
poration at any time it pleases, by paying to the corporation 
what is neeesasry to pay them in order to make up ten per cent, 
dividends from the commencement of the operation of the road, 
and by paying the original expenditure. Well, if the state 
chooses to do that, it has the right to do it. But the question 



ARGUMENT. 449 

then comes, how much will the state have to pay? That has 
been carefully computed. It was computed by the attorney- 
general, Mr. Barnard, and it has been computed over and over 
again. By computing it at simple interest, it amounts to more 
than $4,000,000; computed at annual interest it amounts to 
considerably over $5,000,000; and computed at compound in- 
terest, which Mr. Barnard says he thinks is the interest which 
should be made use of, it amounts to about $6,000,000. There 
is no doubt about it, that if the state of New Hampshire wants 
to take the Concord road, and pay up the back dividends to the 
stockholders, it has a right to do it; and that is all the right 
that the state has in the Concord Railroad, aside from the public 
right that everybody has in all corporations. 

Then there is another thing which has been spoken of some- 
what, and that is in relation to the Canadian Pacific. Mr. Mel- 
len thinks that he knows all about that institution, that it is a 
political institution, and that it would be perfectly suicidal for 
the Canadian Pacific to think of controlling, or having anything 
to do in the way of controlling, directly or indirectly, any rail- 
road outside of the Dominion of Canada. Well, now, anybody 
who knows the nature of the Canadian government knows that 
the Canadian Pacific is a government road, and largely under 
the patronage of the Canadian government and of the home gov- 
ernment, and that it is gotten up for the express purpose of 
getting all the transcontinental business between the two oceans ; 
and for anybody to say that it will not improve the first good 
opportunity to get a port on this side of the continent, upon the 
Atlantic shore, is perfectly idle. I find here a despatch to the 
Boston Journal from Washington, under date of July 15, to this 
effect : 

"Washington, July 15. — If the advantage which the Canadian 
Pacific Railway Company has received by the order from the 
Treasury Department which authorizes it to transport goods in 
bond from San Francisco to Port Moody, the western terminus 
of the Canadian Pacific, is as great as those who have advocated 
the interests of the road believe it to be, our transcontinental lines 
will find in the Canadian road a sharp competitor. That road 
has failed to secure a monopoly of the transcontinental freight 
from India across to Canada, the British government having de- 

29 



450 HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 

cided that a part of that merchandise shall be sent by steamer; 
and this new advantage secured in the United States will be 
especially welcomed. 

"The Treasury order, as the friends of the Canadian Pacific 
interpret it, practically makes San Francisco the terminus of 
that road, so far as the United States is concerned, while any 
point or all points on the Atlantic coast may be selected for the 
eastern terminus. If this interpretation of the privileges con- 
ferred by this order shall prove to be correct, the Canadian 
Pacific will be given a great advantage ; and if, in addition, that 
road shall succeed in securing a direct connection to New York 
and Boston, which will be under its own control, it will be firmly 
established as a rival to all American transcontinental lines. But 
the transcontinental lines may place themselves in a position to 
compete even under these conditions, for it has been stated here 
by railroad men of prominence that the transcontinental roads 
will construe the inter-state commerce law as Judge Deady has 
constructed it, and will decide that the water competition from 
the Pacific coast creates the dissimilar conditions which constitute 
the exception under the act. ' ' 

So you see that the friends of the Canadian Pacific are claim- 
ing that they have already become established in San Francisco, 
and that it only remains for them to get a port on this side. 
They have an order from the treasury department of the United 
States by which they can take goods in bond coming from India 
and carry them right across the continent, and reship them to 
Europe; and they are entering into competition with the three 
great transcontinental lines through the United States, to \vit, 
the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Southern 
Pacific. And, in fact, this gentleman, Mr. Page of the belting 
works — you recollect they made so much fuss about him; the 
Boston & Maine folks are responsible for what he says — had a 
good deal to say about the Canadian Pacific, and about the ar- 
rangements that were made, and how desirable it was to have 
the Boston & Maine get possession of all these roads, so as to 
have a continuous transcontinental line, connecting with the Cana- 
dian Pacific and on across the continent. His sympathies seemed 
to be altogether with the Canadian Pacific as against all the 
other transcontinental lines. It is in the air, gentlemen, and 
there isn 't any doubt about it, that the Boston & Maine and the 
Boston & Lowell are in collusion with the Canadian Pacific, that 



ARGUMENT. 461 

they already have arrangements for business, and that as re- 
spects the future God only knows what may or what may not 
happen. And I think it is a pretty significant fact that Mr. 
VanHom sends a letter down here for Mr. Mellen to read to this 
Legislature, Mr. Mellen says he don't know how he came to 
get it, he don't know how Mr. VanHom, the vice-president of 
the Canadian Pacific Railroad, came to write it, but he did write 
it, and sent it down to Mr. Mellen for Mr. Mellen to read to the 
New Hampshire Legislature. Why did Mr. VanHom do that? 
He was not asked to do it, so Mr. Mellen says. It shows he 
must have been watching the proceedings of this Legislature 
very closely, or he would not have known of any suggestions 
about the Canadian Pacific; and if he did know about the sug- 
gestions in regard to the Canadian Pacific and had no interest 
in them, why should he be writing this letter unasked? Why, 
unless he has an interest, unless there is a purpose of consolida- 
tion, or combination, or leasing, or getting control of some rail- 
road here, is he so quick and so prompt to send a communica- 
tion down to Mr. Mellen? 

Well, then, another point. Mr. Aldrich says the Concord 
Railroad has no terminals; he says the Boston & Maine has got 
them all. This is not true, but if it were, what does the gentle- 
man mean to intimate ? What has he got to say why such a fact 
has anything to do with these bills? Does he mean to say that 
the Boston & Maine have got all the terminals in Boston, and 
they also have got the Boston & Lowell Railroad, and that they 
propose to shut off everything that comes down from the Con- 
cord road? It either means that or it means nothing. But if it 
means that, then we have the fact that railroads are public cor- 
porations and are bound to carry what comes on to them; and 
the Boston & Maine cannot refuse to take what comes from the 
Concord road except they deny their obligations to the public. 
And to do that they have got to ride over the Legislature of 
Massachusetts, the courts of Massachusetts, and the railroad com- 
missioners of Massachusetts, and over the United States govern- 
ment and the United States railroad commissioners; and it is 
only when they override the law and all the tribunals of the 
country that they can refuse to take what is brought to them 



452 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

from other roads and carry it safely over their road. If you 
pass this Hazen bill, perhaps the time will have come when they 
can go right on and override us; anyhow, it will give them a 
pretty good jog in that direction. 

Mr. Aldrich gives us another pretty significant idea. He por- 
trays the railroad doings and exploits of Commodore Vander- 
bilt as a specimen of what the management of the Boston & 
Maine in this proceeding purpose to do. Perhaps it will be 
worth our while to inquire a little as to the history of Com- 
modore Vanderbilt and what he did. In 1853 he came into 
possession of several roads that make up the New York Central, 
and he was permitted then to put in a quantity of water, some 
eight or nine millions. In 1869 there was added to the Central 
road the Hudson River road, and then a grand watering took 
place of forty-five millions. Subsequently, in 1873, another 
watering took place by which forty millions of bonds were put 
on to those roads, making in all somewhere from seventy-five to 
one hundred millions of absolute water that Mr. Vanderbilt put 
into these roads, and which made the foundation of the great 
fortune which he died possessed of, and which was left to his 
son William H., who died a short time since leaving an estate 
which everybody says exceeded two hundred millions of dollars. 
Now, to be sure, when Mr. Vanderbilt put this water in, the 
Legislature required him to establish the fares at the rate of 
two cents a mile; but he went on to these roads, and he took 
all of the brass balls off the engines, he took off every su- 
perfluous ornament, he dismissed every supernumerary employe 
there was on the line of the road, he cut down the wages of the 
men he hired, and he made them all go upon the jump, and the 
effect of that was he paid seven or eight per cent, upon his 
watered stock. Now, gentlemen, if he had gone to work in 
the same way, and had not watered his stock, gone to work with 
the same economy, he could have made money enough to be as 
rich as any man ought to be in this country, and the fares and 
freights could have been cut down so he could have carried pas- 
sengers for less than one cent per mile, instead of for two cents 
per mile. There is no earthy doubt about it, and perhaps he 
could have carried them for half a cent a mile. 



ARGUMENT. 453 

Well, the managers of this fight here for the Boston & Maine 
propose to take Mr. Vanderbilt as their model man. What will 
they do when they get the Concord road and the Northern road 
and the Nashua & Lowell? What will they do with the Man- 
chester & Lawrence? The first thing in imitation of Vander- 
bilt, which they won't forget to do, is the stock-watering. That 
is what they are here for. They will put in millions of water, ac- 
cording to the capacity of each road for taking water. They 
won't stand about doing all that Vanderbilt did. I don't know 
as to their taking the brass balls off from the engines — I hard- 
ly think they will do that. And as to the fares on the Boston, 
Concord & Montreal road, Mr. Mellen says, keep them up. He 
says, keep the fares up ; if you want to cut down anything, cut 
down the freights, but keep your fares up so as to keep folks 
at home to trade, and not let them go abroad to do their trading. 
Well, gentlemen, at this time the Boston & Maine Railroad 
managers and their associates are the most liberal people in the 
world. They issue passes, I suppose, ad libitum over the two 
thousand miles of the road they are in possession of according 
to Mr. Mellen, and especially over the Northern road and its 
branches, 175 miles, and the Boston, Concord & Montreal road, 
200 miles, right here in the heart of New Hampshire. Now 
they are in possession of the Northern road, after the Northern 
Railroad Corporation has been ordered by the court to resume 
possession of that property, and they are in possession of the 
Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad, without right after notice 
to quit, and after suit has been brought which they have de- 
layed. If they had allowed this suit to have gone on to a final 
hearing in the courts in New Hampshire, they would have been 
out of the possession of this road before this time. There is no 
doubt about the result. The court has already decided the 
question with relation to the lease of the Northern road, and 
the lease of the Montreal road stands precisely the same, and 
in the courts of New Hampshire they would have been ordered 
out before this time. But they have transferred the case to 
the courts of the United States, and there it will have to stay 
for ten years, more or less, and if they get it up to Washington 
into the Supreme Court, it will have to lie there on the docket 



454 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

for five years before it can be reached, the Supreme Court being 
that much behind. 

May it please the committee, perhaps this will be as suitable 
a point as any for me to stop, if I am to have another evening. 

(Adjourned to Thursday evening at 7.30.) 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: 

I stopped rather abruptly last evening ; and when I stopped I 
was speaking of the extraordinary condescension and the very 
obliging attitude which the Boston & Maine Railroad and its 
managers now occupy towards you and towards the people of 
New Hampshire — that they are running extra trains up and 
down the road, long trains, making a magnificent show. And it 
seems just as though they could not do enough for folks. And 
they seem to wish to impress upon you that if you will give 
them the legislation they ask and put them into possession of all 
the railroads of New Hampshire, that it will always be so. Mr. 
Mellen told us in a little speech that Mr. Furber said to him: 
"I want you to tell the folks up there in New Hampshire that 
I shall give them great improvements in the service; tell them 
I shall give them a service better than they ever dreamed of. ' ' 

"Well, gentlemen, I cannot think of anything that so aptly 
expresses the attitude of the Boston & Maine and their managers 
towards you and the people of New Hampshire, while they are 
trying to entice, wheedle, and coax you to give away to them 
the railroads and the people of New Hampshire, as the song 
of "The Spider and the Fly." The spider says to the fly, "I 
have the prettiest parlor that ever you did spy. Will you, will 
you, walk into my parlor, Mr. Fly?" Well, as the song goes, 
the fly accepted the invitation, and walked into the spider's 
parlor, and the spider ate him up. (Laughter.) The managers 
of the Boston & Maine Railroad have called to us in their most 
dulcet tones. They have put on their most winning ways. They 
are so warmly pressing us into their parlor. What do you 
think would happen if you should give up to them absolutely 
all your railroads and let them get firmly fixed in their per- 
manent possession? All competition blotted out, everything 



ARGUMENT. 455 

subject to their good pleasure, what do you think they would do? 
I believe they would serve us as the spider did the fly. I believe 
that if we walk into their parlor, they wiU literally eat us up. 
And I am brought to this conclusion, not merely on the general 
principle that when men or corporations think they get the 
absolute control of things, and that nobody can interfere with 
them and with their plans, then they become indifferent to what 
people want and merely consult their own caprices and selfish 
interests. But this corporation has got a reputation ; its habits 
are known, and although it is a foreign corporation to all in- 
tents and purposes, it is not unknown to us. "We have brought 
up some evidence from Massachusetts down where they live, 
down where they keep house. You will remember, gentlemen, 
the evidence from Mr. Morse, that Haverhill was not a com- 
peting point — the city of Haverhill with some twenty or thirty 
thousand inhabitants and a large business — and the only rail- 
road they had to accommodate them was the Boston & Maine. 
And Mr. Morse told you of the grinding manner in which they 
were treated where there was no competition. And that is the 
way it will be all over the country if you submit and give them 
what they ask. They will treat the whole country as Mr. Morse 
testified they treated Haverhill. And when the people down 
there were pressed to the wall and could do nothing, they went 
to work, to build a railroad for themselves. And then this in- 
stitution, this Boston & Maine, determined to hold them, grind 
them right down, to overrule, to head them off from accomplish- 
ing their purpose of building a road. 

This Boston & Maine Railroad is no mere baby. It is more 
than fifty years old. It has got a reputation down in Massachu- 
setts where it was bom, and over in Rockingham and Strafford 
Counties in this state. When there is another corporation close 
by, another road you can ride on, according to the evidence and 
according to their reputation, they are very nice, humane, and 
accommodating. But when there is no competitor they put the 
knife right in ; put the knife in clear up to the hilt. 

Now, gentlemen, I warn you that it is unsafe to put a cor- 
poration that has got their reputation into the control of all the 
business of the country without any competition anywhere. 



456 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

They can build up or tear down. They can make anybody rich 
or poor. They can drive anybody out of business. They can 
control the Legislature. They can control courts. They can 
plunder the people to any extent and put the booty in the 
pockets of their favorites. I don't care, suppose the present 
managers of the Boston & Maine are perfect gentlemen, suppose 
Mr. Furber is a perfect gentleman and his associates are all 
right ; — men die ; corporations never die. Mr. Furber and Mr. 
Jones and their associates, the managers of that corporation, will 
soon die. Somebody else will take their places who may be 
bad men, very likely to be; and certainly sooner or later there 
will be bad men in their places. But, gentlemen, when you know 
that Mr. Furber, the present head of the Boston & Maine, is a 
tyrant when he has got anybody in his grip , and power, and 
when you know that that corporation, when there is no competi- 
tion, is grinding, hard, and merciless, wouldn't it be extremely 
injudicious to place the whole interests of the state of New 
Hampshire absolutely at the pleasure and in the control of that 
corporation? Why, talk about Mr. Chamberlin, the superin- 
tendent of the Concord Railroad ! According to the reputation 
of Mr. Furber and Mr. Chamberlin — I don 't know Mr. Fur- 
ber; I don't want to do him any injustice — but according to 
that reputation I speak of him ; and I believe that Mr. Chamber- 
lin could be kind of short and crusty; I think he could, if he 
set out to, snub a man pretty sharp ; but for real downright 
ferocity that drives a man into his boots and sets him on the run 
for life, why Mr. Chamberlin is no more to be compared to Mr. 
Furber than a common ordinary pussy cat to a regular roaring 
Bengal tiger. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Briggs undertook to say, that we, the friends of the Ather- 
ton bill, are going back upon the Colby bill. Not so. We say 
that Mr. Briggs is going back on the Colby bill; for everybody 
knows who knows the history of that bill and has read the litera- 
ture and the speeches connected with that bill, knows that it 
was the absolute and positive purpose of that Legislature and 
of the framers of that bill to shut the Boston & Lowell absolute- 
ly out of New Hampshire. And Mr. Briggs' bill, the Hazen 
bill, provides directly and absolutely for the leasing, and special- 



ARGUMENT. 457 

ly provides, section seven does, for the leasing of the Northern 
Railroad and the Boston, Concord & Montreal to the Boston & 
Lowell. 

Now, gentlemen, what was intended to be settled by the Colby 
bill ? This was intended as all the evidence shows, and to which 
no man who knows anything about it can make any denial — to 
create a system of railroads in the Merrimack Valley made up 
of the Concord Railroad and the Northern Railroad and the 
Boston, Concord & Montreal, and to create a system in the east- 
ern part of the state made up of the Boston & Maine and the 
Eastern Railroads. I say this is proved; and all that is neces- 
sary for you to do to be satisfied upon that point — and I think 
there are a great many members of the present Legislature who 
were here in 1883, and they must remember that such was the 
uniform statement of all who advocated that bill — is for you 
to read the current literature of that session. 

Now, it is said by the Boston & Maine Railroad here that the 
Concord road would not act, and refused to lease the Northern 
and the Boston, Concord & Montreal when applied to, and that 
these roads were obliged to go out of the state to get leased. 
Now, how are the facts about that ? It has been shown here and 
been talked about, and definitely shown here, that after the 
passage of the Colby Bill and up to May, 1884, the Concord road 
was in no good situation to make a contract with either of the 
upper roads; that although a trustee was put in, and although 
two new members were put in, the evidence shows they entered 
into negotiations with the Northern road, and propositions were 
made, but no definite answer was made to the propositions. They 
offered four and a half per cent, on a sliding scale, which might 
be five per cent, on certain contingencies — four and a half per 
cent, absolutely — and got no answer either of acceptance or 
refusal. But the thing seemed to have been put off up to the 
annual meeting of the Concord Railroad in May, 1884. And on 
that occasion Mr. Sherburne and Mr. Sulloway and Mr, Todd 
went there in force. They went there with the shares that the 
Northern road owned in the Concord road, proposing to vote 
upon them. But they were stopped from voting upon them, 
and the result of the meeting was that they were defeated, and 



458 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the board was elected in accordance with the sentiment of the 
Concord stockholders proper. It was the intention of those gen- 
tlemen to make a board in the Concord Railroad after their own 
heart and in their own interests. If they had done that, if they 
had succeeded in that, if they had got a board there that suited 
them, they undoubtedly intended to lease the Northern road to 
the Concord road, and would have leased it. But failing in 
that they would not lease it. And although the committee ap- 
pointed by the board of directors then chosen for the Concord 
Railroad, although they immediately went to the president, Mr. 
Sherburne of the Northern Railroad, and to Mr. Bell of the 
Boston, Concord & Montreal, they were told by Mr. Sherburne 
that they could not listen to any proposition, and were told by 
Mr. Bell that they should not listen to any unless the Northern 
road also was leased ; that they had agreed to go together. Now, 
the facts were that Mr. Sherburne and Mr. Sulloway and Mr. 
Todd would not upon any terms, and you could not have got 
them to, lease to the Concord road, governed as it was by the 
directors which were chosen in May, 1884. You could no more 
have got them to lease the Northern road to the Concord road 
than you could catch a blue jay by putting salt on his tail. 

Well, they leased to the Boston & Lowell, and next, proceed- 
ings were taken to set aside that lease. And pending those pro- 
ceedings two of the directors in the Northern road, from some 
cause or other, entered into a treaty with the Concord Railroad 
directors that in case that lease was set aside they would lease 
the Northern road to the Concord road on the same terms that 
the Boston & Lowell had it. When that lease was set aside and, 
they were applied to carry out this arrangement, why, they 
temporized along, and pretty soon it became apparent that a 
lease would be taken to the Boston & Maine or in the interest 
of the Boston & Maine; and they, the Concord road, began to 
make their offers, but you could not touch them then with a ten 
foot pole. Mr. Kimball went down there authorized to pay them 
six per cent. No, they would not listen to him, not a moment, 
but they went and leased their road, or agreed to lease it; and 
if you give them authority to, they will lease it no doubt, for 
these men are in the interest of the Boston & Maine and have 



ARGUMENT. 459 

been all the time. They went and leased it, or agreed to lease it, 
for five per cent, for ten years and six per cent, afterward, a 
less sum than was offered them by the Concord road. 

So, then, it is perfectly idle talk, it is perfectly without any 
truth whatever, that the Northern road was willing to lease to 
the Concord road, or would lease to it upon any terms so long 
as they could lease to anybody else, after the present directory 
was chosen. That is the truth about it and the fact about it. 

Now, gentlemen, to go back a little. At the time when the 
Colby bill was passed the Boston & Maine cooperated with the 
Concord road in securing its passage. The Boston & Lowell 
road opposed it clear up and all through. They fought it from 
beginning to end. The Boston & Maine at that time was at war 
with the Boston & Lowell and at peace with the Concord Rail- 
road, and remained so clear up to the time of the leasing of the 
Boston & Lowell and the buying up of the Manchester & Law- 
rence stock. "Why, even two years ago, when it was expected 
there might be some onslaught on the Legislature of 1885, they 
were ready to cooperate and contribute, to aid the Concord road 
in resisting any effort that might be made by the Boston & 
Lowell to get a confirmation of their leases. That 18th section 
of the Colby bil 1, it has been intimated, was the authority under 
which the Boston & Lowell leased the Northern and the Boston, 
Concord & Montreal, and that it was put in there for their ac- 
commodation and to enable them to do so. The fact in regard 
to that is, that the 18th section was put into the bill before it 
was introduced; that is, it was the 17th section of the bill when 
it was introduced. The bill was afterwards amended by in- 
serting a new section prior to it, so that in the bill as amended 
and finally passed that section stood the 18th. That section 
provided that outside railroads, foreign railroads, operating a 
railroad in this state, might lease other roads in this state. That 
provision was put in the bill at the suggestion and for the accom- 
modation of the Boston & Maine, purely and simply. The Bos- 
ton & Maine was then contending, as it had always contended, as 
shown by what I read to you last night from a report of Mr. 
Quincy — always contended that they were a foreign corpora- 
ton; and they were contending such to be the fact in a suit at 



460 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

law at that very time pending; and of course they were not go- 
ing to come into this Legislature and make an admission which 
would upset them and overthrow them in that suit. And they 
did not. They came here, and this was put in there specially 
for their accommodation, they claiming to be a foreign corpora- 
tion. The pretence of Mr. Mellen that he quit his opposition 
in the last stages of the Colby Bill in the Legislature on account 
of the introduction of the 18th section by way of amendment 
is entirely untrue. We have demonstrated that fact to you. 
We have brought the secretary of state in here with the bill 
originally introduced into the House on the 15th of June, 1883, 
with the handwriting of Mr. Colby upon it, and that contains 
this 18th section verbatim et literatim, showing that there isn't 
one word of truth in that statement of Mr. Mellen, that is if he 
did make that statement. This man, Mr. Mellen, is a very 
voluble man, a very swift witness indeed, with a remarkably con- 
venient memory ; when he opens his mouth, why it is something 
like uncorking a champagne bottle, which effervesces all round. 
Why there isn't in his testimony — and you take his testimony 
as it is reported by the party who introduced him, and you can 
not find a single subject that he has spoken of twice but that he 
has told two stories; and if he has spoken of it three times he 
has told three. Why, he talks so fast I suppose that he cannot 
stop to tell his stories alike. When he was first questioned, for 
instance, about his opposition to the Colby bill, he said: "Yes, 
I was up here all summer fighting the Colby bill. We did not 
want it at all." That is where he left it. When he came to be 
re-examined by counsel on the other side who put him on the 
stand, Mr. Barnard, his attention was called to why it was that 
he opposed the Colby bill ; and he went on and said that he op- 
posed it until there was an amendment put in that answered all 
his purposes, and he was satisfied with the bill, rather leaving 
it as a matter of inference that he then went home. Then it 
was put to him on cross-examination again: "If you were 
satisfied with the Colby Bill after it was amended, why were you 
opposing it ? " " Well, I did not know as it would pass. " " Well, 
did you stop opposing the Colby bill when this amendment was 
made?" Well, he says they had got the thing so set up there. 



ARGUMENT. 461 

got the thing so put up, that "I did not think it was of any 
use to fight it any more, so I went home about two weeks be- 
fore it was passed." And so you find it. When he talks, for 
instance, about whether the Boston & Maine had taken possession 
of the railroads appertaining to the Boston & Lowell road, he 
says that they, the Boston & Lowell, retained everything in their 
own control. In another part of his book he said that everything 
that the Boston & Lowell has got is in the control of the Boston 
& Maine. Then if you look at what he says about the Massachu- 
setts Central, you will find he speaks of it twice. The first time 
he was on the stand he said that the Massachusetts Central made 
two millions of bonds, secured on their road, and turned them 
over to the Boston & Lowell to go on and build the road — 
turned them over as collateral security for what the Boston & 
Lowell might expend. The last time he was on the stand he 
said that they made two millions of bonds, and the Boston & 
Lowell took them absolutely and were going to build the road, 
— and had already spent a million, and it would cost about five 
hundred thousand more, and they were going to make five 
hundred thousand out of the transaction. So you see there are 
two stories just as different as they can be. In one place he 
says that they took the bonds absolutely as the property of the 
Boston & Lowell road; and in the other place that they took 
them as collateral security. I have read his testimony over a? 
number of times, and I cannot find anywhere that he has told 
the same story about any thing twice, where he has talked about 
it twice. Why, this matter of reduction of fares on the Boston, 
Concord & Montreal; when he was on the stand first he said 
no road, the Boston & Maine or any other road, could carry 
passengers at three cents a mile over the Boston, Concord & 
Montreal. He said they could do it and bankrupt the road; 
but it was a most foolish thing to do. But the last time he was 
on the stand he thought it would be a good thing; he said that 
the Boston & Maine would get fares down pretty soon to two 
cents a mile ; and that the Boston & Lowell furnished trip tickets 
by which anybody could travel for three cents a mile. Before 
that he said it was poor policy to have fares so low that men 
could go to Boston and trade, and thus deprive the home trader 



462 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

of business. He said that freights should be lowered, but fares 
should not be lowered. You take it just as they have printed 
it themselves, and if you don't find that he tells two stories, if 
you find a single subject that he has spoken of at different times 
that he has not told two different stories about, I would like to 
have you point it out. But then, perhaps, I am spending too 
much time upon this. I don't think this has anything to do 
with the Concord Railroad. 

Now let us look at the history: of the roads round about that 
have to do with the charter of the Boston & Maine. Take the 
charter of the Boston & Maine itself. It seems to have been 
chartered as the Andover & Wilmington road in 1833. It was 
a mere branch road from Wilmington to Andover. Then it 
crawled along up to the New Hampshire line, and was called 
something else, and finally a road was chartered in New Hamp- 
shire and a road was chartered in Maine, and the whole thing 
was joined together and called one road, by several acts in the 
different states. Well, it seems to have been a pretty safe and 
hard-fisted corporation in the old time. You recollect Mr. 
Quincy complained of it in 1859; he says it was a rich corpora- 
tion, and it had big surpluses then, in 1859. It seems to have 
gone on in that way up to 1883, when it got a lease of the East- 
em road, and that seems to have turned its head. It has gone 
to stock-watering and hurrah-boys ever since. Somebody or 
other made an everlasting pile of money, when that Eastern 
road was leased in 1883, and that somebody has got his appetite 
so whetted up by what he got then, that he has been going for 
something of the same kind ever since. (Laughter.) 

Well, then, the Eastern Railroad. That had its origin at 
about the same time with the Boston & Maine, and was very 
nearly parallel to it between Boston and Portland. That seems 
to have got on considerably well up to about 1860, or somewhere 
along there, when it got to buying up all the cast-off roads, and 
finally it got into this habit of charging everything to construc- 
tion. And when they had a great accident along in some of 
these years that cost them a million of money, they kept right 
along paying their dividends and charged the cost of that acci- 
dent, about $1,000,000, right square to the construction account, 



ARGUMENT. 463 

and kept right along paying their dividends up to somewhere 
near 1873. Then they had got their debt and stock up to some- 
where about $20,000,000, and somebody looked into their affairs, 
and pronounced them bankrupt, although their stock was selling 
above par — a hundred and nine dollars, I think, was the mar- 
ket price of it. It went down — presto, change — as quick as 
you could say Jack Robinson. Probably the hard times of 1873 
and 1874 had something to do with it, to prick the bubble. They 
were all ready to lease, but there wasn't anybody there ready to 
lease them, as there was to lease the Boston & Lowell when they 
got ready to "bust" (laughter), and so of course they went 
down. This stock went down so it was sold on the street and 
in the market for $2.50 a share, and it remained that way, or 
something in that way, up to 1883, when it was leased to the 
Boston & Maine, and to these gentlemen who had picked up 
that stock when it was $2.50 a share and $9.00 a share, and so 
on up, and the stock went up to $120 and $130 for a one hundred 
dollar share; and the gentlemen who held stock — of course I 
don't know who they were — made a pile of money, and it set 
them all agog. Then the next enterprise of these managers of 
the Boston & Maine was on the Worcester & Rochester, They 
commenced buying up the stock there; and that road was only 
paying a dividend of two or three per cent. ; stock was selling 
for sixty cents a share or thereabouts ; and by and by when they 
had got it all bought up sufficiently, they made a lease to the 
Boston & Maine. These same men who bought that stock were 
very close to the management, or in the management, of the 
Boston & Maine. They are the same men that are here now. 
And they made a lease to the Boston & Maine which caused that 
stock to go up to $125 or $135 per share, $100 shares. Well, 
of course these men made another pile of money. I don't know 
whether they are the same identical men that made the money 
in the Eastern deal or not, or some of them. But they made 
a pile of it. 

Now something has been said about stock-watering. In this 
Worcester, Nashua & Rochester road the grand stock-watering 
was when they made that lease to the Boston & Maine, when 
they got a rental twice as large as the road was worth. That 



464 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

was the grand stock-watering. It does not make any difference, 
with a railroad whether you water the stock by putting out new 
stock without anything being paid into the corporation, or 
whether you increase the indebtedness of the corporation upon 
which interest has got to be paid by the public. It does not make 
any difference, so far as the public is concerned, whether one 
or the other is fictitious. If either is in whole or part fictitious, 
then it is water, and a fraud on the public. That was the grand 
stock-watering, I say, when they got a result which doubled the 
value of the stock, and which put — I don 't know the precise 
sum — one or two millions of dollars right into the pockets of 
the men who had bought up the stock and who owned the stock. 
And that is always the effect of stock-watering. The men that 
are near the throne, the men that are near the management, 
make the money and put it into their pockets. 

Something has been said about the forty eight hundred shares 
which were in the treasury of the Worcester, Nashua & Roches- 
ter corporation at the time of this leasing, and which were di- 
vided among the stockholders; and the question has been raised 
whether or not that was a watering of stock. Well, it appears 
upon the testimony of Mr. Sinclair and from the testimony of 
Mr. Stoddard that there was an outstanding liability against the 
corporation for the stock, and to issue that stock without its be- 
ing paid for and without discharging that outstanding liabili- 
ty was leaving two liabilities which represented the same thing 
to charge the public upon. And the issuing of that stock was 
pure water. It represented nothing that was in the corporation. 
But the gentlemen say that it did not add to the rental; that 
the rental was just the same. That may be ; but it was water 
notwithstanding. It was a dish that the gentlemen cooked up 
then. If it did not add to the rental, it showed how much they 
thirsted after water. This much is certain; if the lease should 
be broken, or when the lease expires, they would then have a 
larger amount of stock upon which to charge dividends against 
the public. 

In this connection they have read a letter from me. And I 
understand they have given me great credit for legal ability and 
for legal capacity. I don't know as I ever heard myself so 



ARGUMENT. 465 

cracked up as these gentlemen have cracked me up on this sub- 
ject on account of this letter. If there is anything in this let- 
ter that is contrary to what I have now said, why, gentlemen, 
I wish to take it back. (Laughter.) Now, let us look at the 
letter and see whether there is anything in the letter contrary to 
what I have now said. I have got the letter here as they have 
printed it, and I will read it : 

"Littleton, N. H., February 1, 1886. I have read the witliin 
opinion, and agree with the legal conclusions on the facts as- 
sumed." (Laughter.) Then all the things I am made respon- 
sible for by this letter is that the facts assumed in Mr. Olney's 
letter justify Mr. Olney's legal conclusion. Now let us look at 
that letter and see what he assumes, and see if it don't justify 
my legal conclusions. 

"Boston, October 17, 1885. 
"Charles A. Sinclair, president of the Worcester, Nashua & 
Rochester Railway Company : 

"Dear Sir: — At your request I have given careful considera- 
tion of the right of the Worcester, Nashua & Rochester Company 
to deal with the 4805 shares of its capital stock now belonging to 
the company and standing in its name." Here follows what he 
states the facts to be: "I find the shares in question are fully 
paid, were acquired by the company under the consolidating 
statute and agreement in 1883, and are expressly authorized by 
the special statute of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and 
of the state of New Hampshire." Here he says he finds that 
the stock is all paid — that is, that there is something paid into 
the corporation that represents the stock, and he finds that the 
issuing of the stock is fully authorized by a statute of Massa- 
chusetts and a statute of New Hampshire. On that state of 
facts, supposing that had been the state of facts, shares paid for, 
authorized by the Legislature, why, they ought to be issued, 
the stockholders ought to have them. But the facts are not 
so. According to Mr. Sinclair's testimony and according to the 
testimony of Mr. Stoddard, they were not paid for at all. 
(Applause.) There was an outstanding liability against the 
corporation for the pay for that stock, and consequently when 
that stock was issued without its being paid for there were two 

30 



466 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

things issued upon which the public was liable to pay interest 
and dividends, representing one and the same thing; that is, 
the stock was issued without anything in the corporation to 
represent it; and that is the definition of watered stock; when 
it is issued and nothing is put into the corporation to represent 
it. And that is what was done here. 

Mr. Drew says that somebody — he don't give us the name 
of the gentleman — has been up into upper Coos and is going 
to build a road from North Stratford to Colebrook, and don't 
do it either to get votes for their measure here. Well, now, it 
seems to me that there have been some gentlemen that are in- 
terested in the Boston & Maine Railroad who went up there, and 
have set the Upper Coos Railroad in motion and are building 
it. And Mr. Drew says they did not do it to get votes. Now 
in Twynes' case, which is a leading case in the reports, it was 
settled if a contract started off with a declaration — ' ' This con- 
tract is bona fide, and it is not the purpose of this contract to 
cheat anybody," — that such a declaration put into a contract 
is a badge of fraud, and is evidence to be considered as tending 
to show that the contract is not bona fide, and the purpose of it 
is to cheat somebody. Well, now, applying that same rule to 
the declaration of my Brother Drew, his statement would be 
evidence to prove that they did go up there to make some votes 
among you on these measures. Now, if they did not go up there 
for that purpose, to get some votes, what in this world did they 
go up there for? What in the world does the Boston & Maine 
want of a railroad there which don't connect with anybody or 
anything except the Grand Trunk Railway ? and it is understood 
that the Grand Trunk Railway is hostile to the Canadian Pacific. 
They are rival and hostile railroads. And certainly the Grand 
Trunk Railway has no special friendship for the Boston & 
Maine. And why in the world are these gentlemen just at this 
time up there building a railroad for the Grand Trunk when 
they have so much business to attend to here, if it is not accord- 
ing to Twynes' case, to get some votes? But so far as that is 
concerned, I don't make any charges. Brother Drew says that 
they did not go there after votes, and I am not going to tell 
him he lies, or anything of the kind. (Laughter.) 



ARGUMENT. 467 

"Well, let us look a little at the Boston & Lowell Railroad. 
They started off in early days an honest road enough. They 
had two millions of capital, indebtedness and all. But they run 
it up, and have run it up now from two millions to fourteen 
millions. During Mr. Morey's and Mr. Mellen's administration, 
since 1883, they have increased it six millions of dollars. Bank- 
rupt railroads, like the Massachusetts Central, the St. Johns- 
bury & Lake Champlain, and the Manchester & Keene, have 
been bought. They have been bought and paid for by issuing 
the stock and bonds of the Boston & Lowell Railroad. The 
course that I referred to last night was taken by Mr. Morey, 
paying five, five and a half, and six per cent, dividends, and it 
run the stock up. He got it bio wed up in the market in that 
way. Well, the men who took the Boston & Lowell stock for 
St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain stock and for the Massachu- 
setts Central stock made a pile of money, just the same as the 
men who had the Eastern stock must have done. Well, when the 
Boston & Lowell got blowed up enough, got enough watered 
stock, they leased to the Boston & Maine ; and they would not do 
it until then. 

This lease is taken by the Boston & Maine to stop competi- 
tion. Mr. Mellen told us that it was worth a hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars a year to stop competition ; and that they saved 
a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, these two roads, running 
very near together, by running fewer trains. And then that 
they saved another sum of money in their terminals and in 
grade-crossings in' Boston. And he went on and told how that the 
Boston & Maine could afford, just on that, to stop competition, 
to pay the rental on all this watered stock. 

Now, instead of this watered stock to pay dividends on, there 
should have been no stock except what was bona fide. All that 
was saved by this union should have been saved for the public 
by a reduction of fares and freights ; and no arrangements should 
have been made such as would never permit fares and freights to 
be materially reduced. 

Now I call this lease an agreement for a partnership to sponge 
the public by watered stock and wiping out all competition. 
They have got it arranged in this lease that whenever they think 



468 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

the public will bear any more taxation than what is necessary to 
pay the dividends on the stock, they will have some more stock. 
See how they have got it arranged, I read from page nine of 
the lease, article four: 

"If, with the assent of the directors of the lessor, or after 
a decision of the railroad commissioners that the same are neces- 
sary and proper as provided in article seven hereof, the lessee 
shall make permanent additions to or improvements upon the 
demised premises, the lessor shall also issue stock or bonds to 
an amount sufficient to meet the cost thereof." In all the 
cases herein provided for in which stock or bonds are or are to 
be issued by the lessor, the lessor shall issue both or either class 
of securities as the lessee may request. * * * Stock so issued 
after the inception of this lease, shall from the time of such 
issue be deemed part of the lessor's capital stock, within the 
provisions of clause three of article one of this lease." So when- 
ever they want to get up some new stock they can go to work and 
make some improvements. 

Then further over, in article seven, it is provided: "The 
lessee shall have the right to make permanent additions to (that 
is, the Boston & Maine Railroad) and improvements upon the 
demised premises, which shall include any increase in track 
mileage, buildings, structures and bridges additional to those 
existing at the inception of this lease, and buildings, structures, 
and bridges replacing those existing at the inception of this 
lease, so far as the cost of such new buildings, structures, and 
bridges exceeds the cost of restoring such old buildings, struc- 
tures and bridges to as good a condition as when new ; such per- 
manent additions and improvements shall, if assented to by the 
lessor, or decided by the railroad commissioners to be necessary 
and proper, be paid for by the lessor, so far as it has or can 
procure the power to do so in the manner provided in article 
four of this lease." This provides that if they want to get up 
some more stock they can go and build over an old bridge. So 
you see, gentlemen, that what I say is so. 

Well, now, just as soon as the managers of the Boston & 
Maine get possession of the Boston & Lowell, they go for the 
Manchester & Lawrence. They don't wait; the war is carried 



ARGUMENT. 469 

right straight ahead. And then they come here and go for us. 

Now, gentlemen, how is this putting millions upon millions 
into speculators' pockets, by way of stock-watering railroads, 
going to affect the public ? This water represents stock on which 
the public has got to pay dividends just as much as on the stock 
which represents an actual outlay of money. This water, cost- 
ing nothing, represents just so many millions of dollars upon 
which dividends are to be wrung out of the sweat and blood of 
the toilers. The great object for the public is to keep the divi- 
dend-paying stock and the indebtedness of the corporation that 
bears interest just as small as possible, because the public have 
got to pay that ; they have got to pay the dividends on the divi- 
dend-paying stock up to ten per cent., or they are liable to, 
and they have got to pay the interest on the indebtedness. 
Speculators want the dividend-paying stock and indebtedness 
watered as largely as possible, so as to be able to tax the public 
on the smallest actual investment of money, and to have the 
largest taxing power on the smallest investment of money. There 
is a positive and inevitable antagonism between the interests of 
the public and the interests of speculators ; and the point where 
work for the public is to be done by a public corporation is to 
have the sum on which dividends are to be paid, and the in- 
debtedness of the corporation, just as small as possible. 

Now, I will call your attention on that point to the trunk 
roads of the Boston & Maine and the Concord railroads. The 
Boston & Maine is a hundred and fifteen miles long — a little 
more than three times as long as the Concord road — but it has 
a double track only about two thirds of the way; and I think I 
am rery liberal when I say I will call the trunk road of the Bos- 
ton & Maine, its depots and everything it has, worth three times 
as much as the trunk road of the Concord. Well, now, the Bos- 
ton & Maine has got to represent this $7,000,000 of stock and 
$9,000,000 of permanent indebtedness, about $16,000,000 in the 
whole. The debt was between eight and nine millions in Septem- 
ber, 1886, well on to nine millions, and I presume it is consider- 
ably ahead of nine millions now, I don 't know ; I think it would 
be pretty safe to call it nine millions now, but we will call it 
eight, and that would make fifteen millions. Well, now, you 



470 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

multiply the stock of the Concord road, and it has no debt at 
all, one million and a half of stock by three, and that makes 
four millions and a half. There are four millions and a half as 
against seven millions and eight millions — fifteen millions in 
all. And if you were to take simply the seven millions of stock, 
without any reference to the debt of the Boston & Maine, and 
squeeze it down to four millions and a half, you would squeeze 
two millions and a half of water out of it in order to make it 
as solid as the Concord Railroad. (Laughter and applause.) 
And then in addition to that, they have got nine millions of dol- 
lars of indebtedness that is all water, as compared with the Con- 
cord Railroad. Now, gentlemen, take this for yourselves, if you 
are not satisfied with my comparison; look at it for yourselves. 
"Well, besides the stock-watering business in this gathering to- 
gether and putting everything under the control of one cor- 
poration, there are a good many other collateral considerations 
that come in right here in reference to such a hydra-headed 
monster as this Boston & Maine will be. You see it is going to 
have a great many heads. There is the centre head, the Boston 
& Maine, that has got a lot of roads; and then it has got the 
Eastern, which is another head, and it has got a lot of roads 
leased to it ; and then it has got the Boston & Lowell, and that 
has got a lot of roads leased to it ; and I believe that some of the 
roads they have got a lease of have got other roads leased to 
them — and so it multiplies, wheels within wheels, and wheels 
within those wheels, right along down. It is a perfect hydra- 
headed monster, and if they get up here into New Hampshire 
and get hold of the Concord road, the way they will stock-water 
that is very easy. Under the present state of the law they will 
go to work and lease all the bankrupt roads, whose stock they 
have bought, to the Concord road, and carry the stock of those 
bankrupt roads from nothing up to $100 or $150 per share. 

Besides all that, I say that such a monopoly as this becomes 
a monopoly over all business, and over politics, over the Legis- 
lature, over the Governor, and over the court. 

Now, the Boston & Maine, as I claim, has started on this stock- 
watering course by taking the Eastern road and the Boston & 
Lowell road, adding to its permanent indebtedness and adding 



ARGUMENT. 471 

to its stock. Why, they seem willing, according to the statute 
procured in the state of Maine, which I read to you last night 
here, to multiply their stock to any extent. 

Now are these managers — Mr, Jones, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. 
Cook, and Mr, Sinclair — carrying all this Manchester & Law- 
rence stock for nothing? Are they not getting some bonus more 
than the ten per cent, on the stock for which they have paid on 
an average $225, and for some of it considerably more? I ap- 
prehend that in some way or other it is not done at the private 
expense of those men. "When the Boston & Maine have got water 
enough, and when they are ripe for leasing, it is a pretty fair 
presumption that they may lease too. "Well, to whom? God 
only knows. But when they get ready they will probably lease 
to somebody. And it does really seem as if there was a great 
big corporation, a great monster of a corporation, that runs 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, supported by the British gov- 
ernment and by the Canadian government, that will perhaps 
be big enough to lease this terribly big concern after it has got 
watered up so much that it cannot stand alone. They will want 
to lease to somebody. And it looks as though that concern per- 
haps might be big enough by that time to do it ; and perhaps by 
that time, notwithstanding what Mr. Mellen says, the govern- 
ment of Canada would permit them to do it. It is barely pos- 
sible ! 

The Boston & Maine has all along since 1883 been the professed 
friend of the Concord road, and two years ago was here in force 
to protect the Concord road, and was the professed enemy of the 
Boston & Lowell, They sympathized in the Dow suit, the suit 
to break up the lease of the Northern road, and wanted the lease 
broken ; professed right up to the time of the taking of the lease 
of the Boston & Lowell Railroad to be friendly, 

"Well, this rivals the Heathen Chinee that was said to excel 
exerybody for ways that were dark and tricks that were vain — 
I don 't know as it would be proper to apply that to any railroad 
— I don 't know but it would ; — but it is not wonderful, I think, 
that the old fogy directors of the Concord Railroad, themselves 
speaking the truth and thinking other folks did also, were as- 
tounded when these things took place ; and I don 't wonder much 



472 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

that our friend, Mr. Kimball, who is a very honest man, and as 
my Brother Cross says cannot talk very well — and he has not 
got any such gift of gab as Mr. Mellen has, that is certain — I 
don't wonder he was dazed when he saw these things all tum- 
bling around in that sort of a way, was so far out of his head 
that it seems he went and offered a bonus of two hundred thou- 
sand dollars for Sinclair's option. Well, he was out of his head 
when he did it. And when he returned home and communed with 
his fellow directors, they put him right. I don't think there was 
anything very criminal about Mr. Kimball 's conduct, considering 
the sudden attack that has been made upon him. When a fire 
takes place, oftentimes men will do the most foolish things in 
the world. Perhaps they will go after things of no account to 
save them, and let things of great value perish. Mr. Kimball 
acted on this occasion the same as a man might be supposed to 
act in case his house gets afire and is burning up before his face 
and eyes. 

There was another thing pretty startling. They bought stock 
of George Byron Chandler and William P. Fowler, professed 
friends of the Concord road, men who went into this wonderful 
syndicate — they were in that — and they both sold out. That 
was rather calculated to add to Mr. Kimball's surprise and as- 
tonishment. In fact, in the history of nations, parties, and cor- 
porations, I don't believe you could find anything worse in posi- 
tive duplicity and treachery than this selling out and buying up 
of the Manchester & Lawrence stock. And the parties that buy, 
who are they, and what does their buying mean ? Why, they are 
the very same men that bought up the Worcester, Nashua & 
Rochester stock. They are the very same men that are here push- 
ing this measure. And I think it means that this whole thing, 
from the leasing of the Eastern, is just one continuous course 
of policy pursued by the men who surround the management of 
the Boston & Maine, and whose main purpose is stock-jobbing. 
Well, now, who are they that sell? They are George Byron 
Chandler and William P. Fowler, the associates and professed 
confidants of the Concord Railroad. You can hardly conceive 
of anything more stealthy and treacherous than the work done 
by them. But, gentlemen, the Concord Railroad stands up brave- 



ARGUMENT. 473 

ly, assaulted by traitors within and by this many-headed mon- 
ster corporation without. The stockholders of the Concord Rail- 
road could sell out and line their pockets with plunder, after the 
George Byron Chandler style, to these same speculators. And 
these same speculators, after fattening on the "Worcester, Nashua 
& Rochester Railroad and on the Manchester & Lawrence, would 
fat six inches on the ribs when they get the Concord Railroad. 
They would put in millions of water — empty it right into it; 
and the Concord Railroad would stand as much water as the 
Boston & Lowell. But the stockholders of the Concord Railroad 
stand to their integrity. The Concord road remembers today 
that she is a public corporation. She is charged with other busi- 
ness than lining the pockets of her stockholders with money. 
She is charged with public duties ; and in this, her hour of peril, 
she throws herself into the arms of the state to be disposed of, 
and by the terms of the Atherton bill offers herself for the pub- 
lic good. (Applause.) She offers herself, her road, her proper- 
iy, her franchise, everything, as a nucleus of a new New Hamp- 
shire corporation, to extend into your mountains and across the 
entire length of the state ; to furnish railroad facilities for your 
lumber and for your water-power, to build up villages, make a 
home market for our farmers, and in every way develop the re- 
sources of the state. 

We don 't want our railroads absorbed and made merely a part 
of a great through system across the continent, which is managed 
in the interests of the through business and in total disregard of 
local business. We want to keep the control of our railroads ; — 
not that we don't welcome the through business; we would re- 
ceive it, and we would take it through in good shape and good 
style. Business is nowhere better done than over the Concord 
Railroad. 

When the day comes that our railroads are devoted exclusively 
or mainly in the first instance to the accommodation of through 
business and in disregard of our local business, when that day 
comes to pass our villages will dry up, our factories be deserted, 
and our business will be gone. 

Now, gentlemen, the animus of the Boston & Maine 's managers 
is not only apparent from what I have been recounting to you, 



474 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL, 

from what they did with reference to the Eastern Railroad, what 
they did with reference to the Worcester, Nashua & Rochester, 
what they have done with reference to the Boston & Lowell, what 
they have done with reference to the Manchester & Lawrence, 
and from what they are doing here today, but I say it is mani- 
fest from the legislation of March 16, 1887, in Maine, which I 
read to you last night. They got there the right to buy all the 
railroads that are operated by the Eastern Railroad and by 
themselves in the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, 
and to issue the stock of their own corporation to pay for it. 
And, gentlemen, as has been proved here, they tried to get the 
same kind of legislation in Massachusetts; and they got beaten 
there. They would not trust them with it in Massachusetts. 
And now they come up here, and they put their foot in here. 
They don 't dare to ask here for any such legislation as that. But 
they want to get their foot in here in a small way. They made a 
strike by the Hazen bill. If they cannot get that, they will want 
to get a little smaller piece. And if they cannot get that, they 
will get down to a very low figure undoubtedly. But they just 
want to get their foot in here; and if you give them an inch 
they will take an ell, and when they get fairly planted they will 
get such legislation as they got in Maine, and they will have the 
whole country in their control. And, gentlemen, there was never 
a time when the motto Obsta principiis — meet the enemy at the 
threshold; don't allow him to come an inch — applied more per- 
tinently than it does here. (Applause.) Don't give him an 
inch. Don't let him come here at all. If you do you are not 
safe, not for a single moment. 

"We don't want our railroads in the hands of a foreign cor- 
poration which has no sympathy with our people. And they 
have now, for the first time in their history, claimed that they 
are a domestic corporation in New Hampshire, and they have 
come in here and made a prancing strange to look at. My 
brother Chase, and I don 't know but some of the rest of my broth- 
ers, aUuded to the fact, knowing that the Boston & Maine had 
always claimed itself to be a foreign corporation, knowing that 
it carefully guarded the Colby bill so it could take advantage 
of it as a foreign corporation, and knowing that it has always 



ARGUMENT. 475 

called itself a foreign corporation — well, very much to brother 
Chase's surprise, he got immortalized for saying, as he thought, 
a very plain thing; and my brother Aldrich danced all over the 
hall here for one night, certainly, and it has been something that 
every man who has had anything to say has had something to 
cluck over, concerning what Mr. Chase said about the Boston & 
Maine being a foreign corporation. Well, now, I put it to them 
right here, and they can dance about me if they want to (laugh- 
ter), that they have called themselves a foreign corporation from 
the beginning up to now; that they put into the Colby bill this 
clause by which they could take the benefit of the Colby bill as 
a foreign corporation, and they did it at the very time when they 
were defending a suit which my brother here, General Marston, 
whom you all know, brought against them. Mr. Drew and Mr. 
Aldrich called it, I believe, the case of Betsey Horn v. The Bos- 
ton & Maine Railroad. Mr. Drew said it was either Hannah 
Horn or Hannah's sister, he didn't know which. But it turns 
out it was neither Hannah nor Susan, nor anything of the kind, 
but Peter J. Horn (laughter) v. Boston (& Maine Railroad. This 
suit seems to have been entered in the Supreme Court at the April 
term in 1883, in Rockingham County — in 1883, mind you, gen- 
tlemen. This is the petition of the Boston & Maine Railroad, 
signed "Boston & Maine Railroad by George C. Lord, president," 
and in this petition they set up that they are a citizen of Massa- 
chusetts and not a citizen of New Hampshire, and that this suit 
was brought by Peter Horn, who was a citizen of New Hamp- 
shire, and hence that the two parties are citizens of different 
states, and asking that the suit be transferred to the Circuit 
Court of the United States. (Applause.) The question thus raised 
was considered by the Supreme Court of New Hampshire and the 
Circuit Court of the United States for the purposes of this case, 
and it was finally decided that although the Boston & Maine 
Railroad had its place of business in Massachusetts, and more 
than four fifths of its stockholders lived there, and although 
they had always claimed to be a citizen of Massachusetts, still, 
inasmuch as they had come to the state of New Hampshire and 
got a charter to run across the state of New Hampshire, they 
must be regarded as a citizen of New Hampshire so far as a 



476 HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 

citizen of New Hampshire bringing a suit against them was con- 
cerned, and those courts held them up to their work. And I was 
not sorry for that either. I am glad Peter got his verdict, as 
he did afterwards ; it was a just case, probably. 

But the Boston & Maine did not see fit, after the Supreme 
Court of this state and the Circuit Court of the United States had 
decided that they were a citizen of this state, to go up to the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. They then thought, perhaps, 
they had rather settle with Peter than to do that. But bye and 
bye, if they should have sufficient object, they would probably 
go up to the Supreme Court of the United States, and how they 
would settle the question God only knows. They have certainly 
settled a couple of cases within a short time. One is the Penn. 
R. B. V. St. Louis & Terre Haute R. R., 118 U. S. 290 ; the other 
is Goulett V, Louisville & NasJiville R. R. Co., decided last May, 
and reported in the July number of the Albany Law Journal. 
In that case a suit was brought by a citizen of Tennessee against 
the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the motion was to trans- 
fer it to the United States court, on the ground that the Louisville 
& Nashville Railroad was a citizen of Kentucky alone and not a 
citizen of Tennessee. Now if the Boston & Maine Railroad can 
bring their case within the same state of facts upon which the 
court found that the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was not a 
citizen of Tennessee, why then they can succeed in maintaining 
what they have always claimed until this time, ever since their 
creation as a corporation. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad 
was chartered first in Kentucky, from Louisville to the Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee line, and then from that line to Nashville 
in Tennessee, about the centre of Tennessee, probably forty or 
fifty miles, by an act of incorporation passed by the state of 
Tennessee, and the whole thing was made one railroad, and stock 
in one was stock in the other. The court held in that case that 
the enterprise having started in Kentucky, and the act of incor- 
poration in Tennessee being merely an extension or carrying out 
of the original plan, that the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was 
a citizen of Kentucky and not a citizen of Tennessee. And the 
same thing is held in the case of the St. Louis & Terra Haute 
Railroad, a part of that railroad being in Indiana and a part 
in Illinois. 



ARGUMENT. 477 

Now, if ever the Boston & Maine should have a sufficient ob- 
ject, and think they can bring themselves within these cases, as 
I do not now see clearly why they may not — they originally 
started in Massachuestts and their subsequent chartering here in 
New Hampshire was a continuation of that line — I do not see 
very well why they may not bring themselves within the same 
rule that was considered in the case of the Louisville & Nashville 
Railroad. So what may happen hereafter nobody can tell. But 
it is perfectly manifest that the Boston & Maine Railroad is not 
going to allow any suits brought in New Hampshire against 
them to be tried by our courts here; for they have made provi- 
sion in their lease that the Boston & Lowell, which is an outside 
corporation and a foreign corporation beyond all question, who 
have just transferred a case arising with the Boston, Concord & 
Montreal Railroad to the United States court, and they also 
have made provision in this very Hazen bill that the Boston & 
Lowell road shall take the lease of the Northern and the Boston, 
Concord & Montreal roads, and then they have a provision in 
their lease that the Boston & Lowell shall take a lease of a rail- 
road whenever the Boston & Maine request them so to do. So you 
see, gentlemen, that they have got the bars all nicely put up. 
They have got the thing arranged so that whatever suits are 
brought here in New Hampshire against Boston & Maine inter- 
ests in New Hampshire, the Boston & Lowell is the nominal 
party, and you have got to sue them, and they can carry you into 
the United States court. If they can 't do it in one way, they are 
going to do it in another. They are hard fellows. (Laughter.) As 
the testimony is, when there is competition, when they want 
something, they are the nicest fellows in the world. Why, now, 
up here at this time, they are the nicest men you ever did see. 
You could not call for nicer men. But when they have got you in 
their power they will grind you, and they do not mean that their 
business shall be in the power of the New Hampshire courts. 
"When my friend Marston sued them they squirmed awfully, but 
he held them. But they have fixed it now in another way, and 
when he comes to sue them again, he will have to sue the Boston 
& Lowell. (Laughter.) I don't know but the general will be 
enough for them, but I guess they would be too much for me, 
(Laughter.) 



478 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Well, this Boston & Maine Railroad is a corporation whose of- 
fices are all out of the state. You can't reach them by legal 
process if you want to see their books, or if you want the testi- 
money of one of their clerks; you will be compelled, in all your 
business of a legal nature with the railroads, to go down, out of 
the state to find out anything about them. 

There is another thing I will mention right here. The Boston 
& Maine Railroad have increased their capital stock from $2,- 
750,000 to $7,000,000, without any authority from the state of 
New Hampshire to make that increase. That corporation is to- 
day paying ten per cent, dividends upon $4,250,000 of its stock, 
without any authority from the state of New Hampshire so to 
do. The Boston & Maine Railroad is either a foreign corpora- 
tion, or it holds $4,250,000 of its stock today without right, and 
in violation of law. 

Gentlemen, we have presented a bill here, the Atherton bill. 
Mr. Briggs says it only requires a majority of the stockholders in 
case of a vote for union. Well, that is true, and we put it in 
that way, because that is the way business is ordinarily done in 
corporations. Whenever it is proper a railroad should act, or a 
corporation should act, a majority should rule, and we put it in 
the ordinary way. But if you think it should be two thirds, 
make it two thirds. That is not a matter to be talked about, any 
more than we wish to put it in the ordinary and common way. 

And then Mr. Briggs says that the sixteenth section is nar- 
row, because it prohibits the Boston & Maine from coming up 
here and leasing all the roads in the state. Well, gentlemen, that 
is the very thing we don't want. That is the very thing they are 
asking for in the Hazen bill. This provision in the Atherton 
bill is the very thing we need for the safety and protection of the 
state. That is why we put it in there. We don't want these 
men up here. We don't want the Boston & Maine up here leas- 
ing our roads. 

Well, then, there is this old stock business in the Boston, Con- 
cord & Montreal road. They have made a great deal of hulla- 
baloo about that. I don't know but they have talked more about 
that than they have about what Mr. Chase said about their being 
a foreign corporation. I believe Mr. Page of the belting works, 



ARGUMENT. 479 

a business man, had to pay his respects to the syndicate, also he 
had to pay them to Mr. Chase, and they seem to have advertised 
that business pretty thoroughly. And inasmuch as there is not 
anything to it, and inasmuch as it is entirely without any founda- 
tion, nobody has paid very much attention to it so far, and they 
have been allowed to scream all they wanted to. And in fact it 
seems they know well enough there is nothing in it. They scream 
''Water!" and "Stock-jobbing!" on the principle of the old cry 
of "Stop, thief!" in order to divert the public attention from 
their own immense work of stock- jobbing and stock- watering. 

The facts about this business are that twenty gentlemen bought 
out the stock which was originally owned by Mr. Lyon and Mr. 
Bell and Mr. Harlow — twenty of them bought the stock which 
was formerly owned by three or four, and they paid its market 
value for it; and they paid for it, not with the idea of making 
any speculation — there was not a man in that whole crowd, to 
my knowledge, who had any idea of a speculation — but the idea 
was they bought it at a price where it was safe to buy it, calcula- 
ting upon the lease already made of the Boston, Concord & Mont- 
real road that it was worth, if that lease was permitted to re- 
main, just about what was paid for it, as near as they could cal- 
culate. No man would ever have bought it simply for the pur- 
pose of holding — that is, none of these men would — but they 
bought it on account of seeing in the Massachusetts Legislature 
a bill, which was afterwards passed and which became a law, and 
which was then pending in the Massachusetts Legislature when 
they bought the stock. And I would call your attention to that 
bill, chapter 278 of the Pamphlet Laws of the Legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts, session of 1886. The title of the act is: "An act to 
authorize the Boston & Maine Corporation to unite and consoli- 
date with certain railroads now leased or operated by it, to pur- 
chase the property, rights, and franchises of such railroads, and 
increase its capital stock therefor. 

"Section 1. The Boston & Lowell Railroad corporation is here- 
by authorized to unite and consolidate with either or all of the 
following named railroad corporations now leased or operated 
in fact by it or its lessor, viz. : the Boston,. Concord & Montreal 
Railroad, the Pemigewasset Valley Railroad, the Whitefield & 



480 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

Jefferson Railroad, and the St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain 
Railroad Company. * * * 

' ' Section 2. The Boston & Lowell Railroad corporation may in- 
crease its capital stock to such an amount as may be necessary 
to carry into effect the provisions of this act, subject to the gen- 
eral laws of the commonwealth applicable to such increase, and 
may purchase, hold, use, and enjoy the stock, bonds, property, 
rights, and franchises of either or all of said corporations, leased 
or operated as aforesaid, and may sell or exchange its stock, 
bonds, or notes for the stock, bonds, property, rights, and fran- 
chises, and in payment of the liabilities of said corporations, 
leased or operated as aforesaid, upon such terms and conditions 
as may be agreed upon with the holders thereof. ' ' 

Well, then, they saw this act pending in the Masaschusetts 
Legislature which afterward became a law. And they deter- 
mined that they would buy this stock ; and they did. Well, now, 
gentlemen, we thought we would fix that in the Atherton bill 
so that no mortal man, whatever his disposition was, would have 
the audacity to claim that the Atherton bill made any better 
provision for the old stock and new stock than what existed un- 
der the old state of things. And I submit that nobody for a 
single moment who will look at that act would entertain the idea 
that it would be as well for the old stock and the new stock as it 
would to let the road remain under the lease to the Boston & 
Lowell. But I find that it is charged here that the syndicate 
were not willing to take their rights as they would have been 
and as they existed under the old lease at the time they bought 
it, but that they want a provision for themselves in this Ather- 
ton bill. 

I am authorized, I think, to speak for the Boston, Concord & 
Montreal, and I am authorized to speak also for the syndicate, 
except these gentlemen that have been bought away from us and 
are now owned by the Boston & Maine — Mr. George Byron 
Chandler and Mr. William P. Fowler. I am not authorized to 
speak for them. But for the others I am authorized to speak, and 
for the Boston, Concord & Montreal. And Mr. Eastman here 
has expressed this feeling, and says this Atherton bill ought to 
pass, or that the Boston, Concord & Montreal road ought not to 



ARGUMENT. 481 

be permitted to unite with the Concord road even under the Colby- 
bill, because if they do, this surplus, as he calls it, of the Concord 
road will all be absorbed and will go up on the Boston, Concord 
& Montreal where it don't belong; that it belongs down here on 
the Concord road. 

Now, to put an end to all that sort of talk, I suggest here that 
so far as the syndicate is concerned, so far as the Boston, Con- 
cord & Montreal Railroad is concerned, you may strike out the 
latter part of section 12 and substitute this : That from the pres- 
ent time until the time that this lease would expire, which would 
be 1983, no money shall be paid in discharge of, or upon, the 
indebtedness of the Boston, Concord & Montreal road, or upon 
its stock, except a sum corresponding to the rental provided in 
that lease, which is three hundred thousand dollars. That will 
leave the Boston, Concord & Montreal road with nothing to be 
expended upon it as it exists now, except what it is entitled to un- 
der the existing lease ; and all the money there is earned to go to 
the lessor, and the syndicate to get no dividends beyond what 
they would get if it should remain under the lease that was in- 
tended to be taken. 

Well, I don't know but my Brother Drew will say that some 
of these syndicate fellows will be up there in 1983 and will de- 
mand ten per cent, dividend on their stock. (Applause.) "Well, 
gentlemen, I will take the ground here that if any of those fel- 
lows get around and get up there in 1983 they ought to have it. 
(Laughter.) And I submit that to you. 

G-entlemen, a word more and I will close. I see you are get- 
ting uneasy, and the hour is somewhat advanced. The times are 
critical ; a mistake now cannot be remedied. There is Coos and 
the Upper Pemigewasset to be developed and made a very large 
producing section, or it is to remain, a primeval forest waving 
over it, and the home of wild beasts. The Concord Railroad has 
arrived at a stage where a new departure must be taken. It 
cannot remain any longer as it is. The state must take charge 
of it, or give it up. She must be united with the New Hampshire 
roads with which she connects, under the eye of the state, pro- 
tected by the state, or this splendid property will be lost ; it will 
go to speculators. The issue, gentlemen, is just that. 

31 



482 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

If the Atherton bill is not right, make it right If there is any- 
thing that is wanting, make it perfect. But do something. Gen- 
tlemen of the committee, the issue is upon you. The responsi- 
bility is upon you. You cannot avoid it if you would. You 
must either stretch forth the strong arm of the state and take the 
Concord Railroad under its protection or refuse to do it. If 
you refuse, the Concord Railroad, assailed in front and in rear 
and at the sides, must be overwhelmed. Its surplus will be lost 
to the state, and wiU, by stock-watering, be put into the pockets 
of speculators, and then the public will be oppressed to pay 
dividends on the increased capital. Now, in the name of all we 
hold dear, in the name of what New Hampshire has been and 
what we hope she will continue to be, let us save this valuable 
property for the state. If there is anything wanting in the Ath- 
erton bill to make it perfect so it will secure the Concord road 
to be used for the benefit of the state, and not a dollar for stock- 
waterers, put it in. Will you let this splendid property be lost 
to the state ? Will you give it up to hungry speculators who are 
indiscriminately swallowing both right and left, railroads that 
are wholly bankrupt, buying the worthless stock of such rail- 
roads and then issuing their own stock for it? They have got 
their eye on the Concord Railroad, and there never was a hungry 
wolf whose mouth watered for a fat morsel as these speculators 
long for the Concord Railroad. The issue is made up. It is upon 
us. It must be decided now, and you must decide it. The state 
must put forth its strong arms, and by a judicious law put the 
Concord Railroad beyond the reach of stock-waterers and specu- 
lators, or it is gone forever. What will you do with the Concord 
Railroad? It lies with you to say; and the decision you now 
make is irrevocable. You cannot hereafter reverse your de- 
cision and save it. No future legislation can save it. You must 
save it now. You must lock the door now, or the horse will be 
stolen. What will you do with the Concord Railroad ? Will you 
hand it over to foreign speculators and put it beyond the control 
of the state to have its stock watered down so as to put millions 
into their pockets ? It would not be so thin then as the Boston & 
Lowell stock. Do you ask how they will do it? Isn't it plain 
enough ? These bankrupt roads they have been buying up, when 



ARGUMENT. 433 

they get control of the Concord road they can make a lease of 
to the Concord road. It will disembowl the Concord road in a 
short time, and the surplus would all be in the pockets of these 
gentlemen who are hungering and thirsting. I repeat: What 
will you do with the Concord Railroad? Will you keep the 
Concord Railroad to use and develop the state, make new taxable 
property to aid and contribute to the prosperity of the state? 
Or will you allow it to pass beyond your control to make mil- 
lionaires of foreign speculators who will tax you to pay divi- 
dends on watered stock? If you give it away they will not thank 
you for it, and they will afterward ride over you and abuse you. 
I have spoken, perhaps earnestly, for I feel deeply. I have 
not intended to be unjust to anybody. I have spoken with 
malice to no one; and if I have done anybody injustice, I ask 
pardon. I believe I have stated the issue plainly. I have en- 
deavored to do it truthfully and justly. And now, gentlemen, 
with the earnest hope that the wisdom of Almighty God may 
guide you in your deliberations and final decision, I commit the 
cause into your hands. 




Hon. Harry Bingham 

At 75 years. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

A Letter Written by Harry Bingham to David Cross in the 
Winter op 1899-1900.* 

Brother Cross : I received your letter a long time ago. I have 
attempted several times to reply, but have found myself so weak 
that I could not pursue the undertaking. I have now secured 
the aid of another hand and hope to complete some sort of a 
reply. I was very glad to hear from you and I congratulate 
you upon the great good fortune of enjoying a lusty old age 
without the scourge of its usual infirmities. Although I never 
had a son, yet I know enough about the pangs that are felt most 
keenly by the human heart and strike to its very core to realize 
somewhat the abiding grief and anguish that a fond parent must 



♦This letter, embodying Mr. Bingham's estimate of General Pierce as 
a lawyer, a citizen and a patriot, was written by Mr. Bingham to Judge 
Cross, at the latter'g request, with reference to an address on Franklin 
Pierce as a lawyer, which Judge Cross delivered March 15, 1900, and 
which was published in Vol. 1 of the proceedings of the New Hampshire 
Bar Association, pp. 39-74. An extract from Mr. Bingham's letter is 
printed on pp. 70 and 71 of the same volume in the appendix to the ad- 
dress of Judge Cross. 

Judge Cross, the oldest living graduate of Dartmouth and the oldest 
member of the New Hampshire bar, was in college two years with Mr. 
Bingham, completing his course in 1841, when Mr. Bingham entered 
his junior year. He served with him in the Legislature, as a member 
of the Judiciary Committee, and, although located in another county, 
'frequently came in contact with him in the course of legal practice. 
Although differing politically, the two entertained for each other feel- 
ings of sincere regard and esteem. That Judge Cross, when preparing 
an address upon the late President Pierce, a distinguished Democratic 
leader, should have sought suggestions from Mr. Bingham, was naturally 
to have been expected. 



486 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

feel over the loss of a promising and dutiful son. I condole 
sincerely with you on the loss of your son. To assuage sorrow 
for such a loss, philosophy may be summoned. It is an incident 
inseparable from the lot of humanity and must be endured. 
The consolations of religion, too, are open to those who seek it. 

You request me to give you my estimate of Franklin Pierce as 
a lawyer, also any literature I may have illustrating what he 
was in that capacity. I have no literature especially treating 
of Pierce as a lawyer. I had no personal acquaintance with him 
before he was President and had only heard him make a motion 
in court once, and once or twice on the stump. All my ideas of 
Pierce as a lawyer are based on what I know of his reputation 
as such from the time that I began practice in 1846 to 1853. I 
always had the impression that he had a keen, discriminating, 
legal mind ; that, although not overburdened with book learning, 
yet he always knew the law which applied to his case and ap- 
plied it with accuracy. His reputation as a jury advocate, as 
it came to my ears, was of surpassing brilliancy. Before New 
Hampshire courts and juries he was remarkably successful. 
His popularity as a man was unbounded. The occasion when I 
heard the motion to which I have referred was in the July term, 
1851, of the Supreme Court holden at Plymouth. 

The high sheriff of Hillsborough County brought there on a 
writ of habeas corpus some prisoners bound over to the next 
grand jury term in that county on the charge of murder. Gen- 
eral Pierce appeared for these prisoners and moved that they be 
admitted to bail. His manner was easy, dignified, graceful and 
courteous. He stated the grounds of his motion with great per- 
spicuity and presented the evidence in support thereof in a way 
that must have given it all the weight to which it was entitled. 
He was treated by the court, then consisting of such men as 
Gilchrist, Woods and Bell, and by the members of the bar pres- 
ent, among whom were several of the most distinguished lawyers 
in the state, with deference and respect. 

At one time I thought of preparing an address in regard to 
his character and standing as a man, a patriot and a statesman. 
In that view I had begun to fortify my impressions and recol- 
lection by reviewing the public records, newspapers and current 



CORRESPONDENCE. 487 

literature of his day. But before I had made much progress in 
this work and before I had formulated in my mind the ground- 
work of such an address, I was arrested from any further action 
in that direction by the utter breaking down of my health and 
the consequent physical and mental inability to do anything in- 
volving serious labor. In the feeble condition in which I have 
ever since remained I have not attempted to resume the under- 
taking, from the conviction that such a work ought either to be 
properly done or let alone altogether. Among the data that I 
examined were files of the New Hampshire Patriot, the ''Life 
of Pierce" by Hawthorne, the ''Life of Pierce" by Peabody, ad- 
dresses on the same subject by Sidney Webster, "The Causes 
of the Civil War" by Lunt; also some recent histories of the 
United States, the names of whose authors I do not now recall. 
The matters that I proposed to discuss in my address were to 
be arranged somewhat in this order: First, his parentage and 
early training; second, his college life and college associates; 
third, his entry into political life, his election to the New Hamp- 
shire Legislature and his career in the House, and his congres- 
sional career terminating in 1842 by the resignation of his seat 
in the United States Senate; fourth, his very brilliant and suc- 
cessful practice of the law in the New Hampshire courts and his 
brief campaign in the Mexican War, covering the period from 
1842 to his election as president ; fifth, his presidential term, his 
subsequent life and death in 1869. 

After his term as chief magistrate of the nation had expired 
and he had retired to private life, circumstances threw me quite 
often into his society and I became quite intimate with him and 
remained so all through the period of the Civil War and up to 
his death in 1869. I thus had an opportunity to study and 
know the man, to see the motives which were his inspiration and 
to learn the theories and principles that had guided his action 
through life in the discharge of duty, whether public or private. 
It is my deliberate judgment that I have never known a more 
clear-headed man than Franklin Pierce or one who surpassed 
him in patriotic devotion to his country and to his whole coun- 
try, or one who had a stronger conviction of the paramount 
value of the American Union and that to maintain it the rights 



488 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

of all sections as guaranteed by the Constitution must be respect- 
ed. No man surpassed him in goodness of heart, and the conse- 
quent amiability of manner and general courtesy with which he 
always met his fellow citizens caused him to be universally be- 
loved and respected. After his election to the presidency and 
after the expiration of his term of office and his retirement to 
private life, the hatred of the North to the peeculiar institution 
of the South and to the Constitution itself so far as it protected 
that institution, and the irritation and alienation of the South 
thereat grew in intensity, was fanned by the inflammatory ap- 
peals of extremists in both sections until a civil war of tremen- 
dous proportions broke out and desolated the land. The war 
terminated in the total subjugation of the South, the forcible 
abolition of slavery and the striking out of the Constitution 
everything that protected slavery and inserting instead thereof 
an article making slavery unlawful. 

This was a practical revolution, changing the dominant senti- 
ment of the country from what it had been from the foundation 
of the government to the breaking out of the Civil War, bringing 
all those who in the discharge of official duty during the strife 
preceding the war had sought to maintain peace and the Union 
by a strict adherence to the compromise on which the Constitu- 
tion was based under a shadow, and making them unpopular. 
It was the misfortune of General Pierce that his term of the 
presidency happened during the strife that culminated in the 
Civil War. 

His father, Gen, Benjamin Pierce, a Revolutionary hero, was 
a strong man and a distinguished citizen of New Hampshire. 
He enlisted in the army when scarcely eighteen years of age as 
a private, fought at Bunker Hill, and remained continuously 
in the service throughout the entire war, fought his way up to 
the rank of captain and the command of his company, which 
was disbanded at West Point in 1784. His attachment to his 
country was deep and he devotedly believed that in order to 
secure its prosperity and liberty the Union under the Constitu- 
tion must be preserved. These ideas were always with him 
familiar topics of conversation in his family, in the society of 
his friends and at neighborhood gatherings. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 489 

Franklin Pierce could not have failed to be deeply impressed 
in his childhood and youth by the teachings of his father and we 
find that such impressions took deep root in his youth, and that 
his subsequent study, observation and experience planted them 
in his heart so firmly as to be inseparable from his very ex- 
istence, with the conviction that the compromise of the Constitu- 
tion must be fairly met and honestly maintained. 

When he was elected to the presidency the whole country knew 
and believed that such were his views, and, relying upon that 
knowledge and belief, elected him with an overwhelming and 
unprecedented majority. He administered the government in 
accordance with his life-long principles as the people knew them 
to be when they elected him, although during his term the old 
strife of the sections, culminating in the Civil War, was renewed. 

It availed Franklin Pierce nothing as against the unreasoning 
passions, animosities and prejudices engendered by the war 
that he had administered the government with honesty, fidelity 
and ability. The events that occurred in the life of Franklin 
Pierce and his acts have long since passed into history and he 
himself has lain in his grave for almost a generation. The time 
has arrived when it is practicable for all men to consider and 
judge of his life and character impartially and New Hampshire 
owes it to herself to do justice to the name and memory of her 
very brilliant son and the only one of her many eminent sons who 
has been elevated to the high position of chief magistrate of the 
nation. 

Very respectfully your friend, 

Harry Bingham. 



TO HON. HARRY BINGHAM. 

An Acrostic. 

R is life, from manhood's days to ripened age, 

A record of untiring industry supplies. 

R enowned as Lawyer and in politics a "Sage," 

R elied upon as one who wisely will advise, 

Y et weigh with zealous care all doubts that may arise. 



490 HARRY BINOHAM MEMORIAL. 

B om, bred and nurtured on rich New England soil, 
In Dartmouth's famous college halls, a graduate; 
N ot daunted by life's countless evils and turmoils, 
G rown brave and strong with zeal and force to advocate 
H is views, resulting from much earnest thought and toil ; 
And, though powerless to retard time's onward flight, 
M ay yet his valued counsel long sustain the right. 
Nov., 1898. William J. Beixows.* 

Littleton, December 3, 1898. 
Brother Bellows: 

I have received from you an acrostic, addressed to me, so skill- 
fully constructed that I am filled with admiration of your pro- 
ficiency in such work. I am not a poet. If I were I could 
respond in the musical cadences of poetic numbers. As it is I 
must content myself with the use of common, everyday prose. 

Amid the thickening shadows of the growing infirmities that 
precede the close of life, it is a great relief to be reminded of the 



*William J. Bellows was a professional cotemporary, neighbor and 
friend of Mr. Bingham from the time when the latter first estab- 
lished himself in the town of Littleton, where Mr. Bellows had come 
to study law with his brother, Henry A. Bellows, subsequently chief 
justice of the Supreme Court, in 1842. He was a native of Rocking- 
ham, Vt., a son of Maj. Joseph Bellows, bom July 3, 1817. He was 
educated in the schools of Bellows Falls, Vt., and Walpole, N. H., 
and at Waterford (Vt.) Academy, and had been a traveling sales- 
man for a time before commencing the study of law. Upon his ad- 
mission to the bar he engaged in partnership with his brother, which 
continued till the removal of the latter to Concord in 1850. He then 
practised alone till 1854, when he was associated with John Farr, 
the firm of Bellows & Farr continuing till 1859. In 1861 Mr. Bellows 
became postmaster of Littleton, holding the office seven years, and 
meanwhile was for several years the editor of The People's Journal, 
a Republican weekly paper which had been established in the town. 
During and after his term of office Mr. Bellows gave less attention 
to his profession, and finally engaged in mercantile business, becom- 
ing a member of the hardware firm of H. L. Tilton & Co., where he 
continued for some years, subsequently engaging in general trade 
with his son, "William H. Bellows, although he had practically re- 
tired many years before his death, August 29, 1906. Mr. Bellows was 
a courteous gentleman and public spirited citizen, and was par- 
ticularly interested in education. He had served many years as a 
member and president of the school board. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 491 

long ago, when the blood of youth danced in our veins and hopes 
were buoyant. 

The pleasant memories associated with the days when you 
and I were young practitioners of the law, will remain with us 
while life lasts. 

Your paper awakens recollections and presents those days to 
view. I recall your kind and generous ways and conduct, al- 
ways gentlemanly, and always securing for you the friendship 
and respect of your associates. 

Although I dare not flatter myself that the laudations of your 
paper are fairly due to me, yet I receive the same with infinite 
pleasure, as an offering from out of the goodness of your heart, 
in commemoration of our friendship, past and present, while 
both of us are tottering over the grave. I thank you sincerely 
and pray that your remaining days may be blest, and that with 
resignation and hope you may pass through the dark valley and 
enter with confidence the unknown hereafter. 

Very truly your friend, 

Harry Bingham. 



THE COURTS OF GRAFTON COUNTY FIFTY YEARS 

AGO. 

Addressed to 
HON. HARRY BINGHAM. 

When first we practised in the courts, some fifty years ago, 
The lawyers in their Sunday's best, were dressed from top to toe, 

And when all were assembled, and the Sheriff cried "Hear ye," 
The court-room then presented a pleasant sight to see. 

For then the Judge presiding, in calm dignity surveyed 

The members of the bar, in many groups arrayed, 
And visitors of either sex, intent his charge to hear, 

A privilege freely granted and enjoyed every year. 

The charge delivered, work began ; the cases then were called, 
And soon, on either side, the counsel were installed. 

The plaintiffs and defendants each have their chosen men 
To try their causes when the Judge should call them up again. 



492 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

With lawyers such as then composed the Grafton County bar, 
No wonder that the litigants felt well prepared for war, 

For had they not selected from this distinguished list 
A man whose marked ability but few could well resist? 

Such men in fact as Quincy, Kittridge, Hibbard, Perley, Bell, 
Bellows Senior, Goodall, Breton, Duncan and quite as well 

The Binghams, Rands, and Carpenters, who each with practice large 
For plaintiff or defendant, had many suits in charge. 

Nor should there be omitted Blaisdell, Bellows Jr., Livermore, 
Chapman, Dickey, Patterson, and Sloan, who always wore 

Mismates, cast-off rubber shoes, that made his step so light 
You heeded not his near approach, until he came in sight. 

And Patterson, though never known to try a cause in court, 
Yet never failed to make each term, a favorite resort. 

Where his gentlemanly address, and bright eccentric ways 
Made him a favorite with the bar, in those our early days. 

How well we now remember the lawyers gathered there, 

Comprising in the aggregate, a legal talent rare, 
With character and zeal combined, a client's worthy cause 

Was won by force of truth, sustained by righteous laws. 

And now where are those men? Still echo answers where! 

But one remains besides ourselves, of those assembled there. 
That one, Arthur Livermore, whose nice scholastic ways 

Made him a favorite socially, in those far "by-gone" days. 

Yes, but we three in ripe old age, of all that worthy list. 
Amid life's earthly scenes of joy and sorrow, still exist 

But, while our sojourn here shall be allowed to last. 
Their memory yields a pleasant leaf from records of the past. 

The rest whose names, conspicuous, in the archives of the state 

How frequently recorded, 'twere hard to estimate. 
Still in our remembrance, as friends we used to know. 

When we first practised in the courts, some fifty years ago. 

January 1, 1900, 
Brother Bingham : 

The accompanying verses, written by me some time since, 
though without poetic merit, served to bridge over some of my 
many leisure moments, while writing. In the hope they may do 
you a similar service in reading, by recalling incidents in our 
early practice which they may suggest, I send them to you with 



CORRESPONDENCE. 493 

my kind regards and a sincere wish that the New Year may 
bring you improved health to that degree that the ills incident 
to ripening age, may be easily borne. 

Yours sincerely, 

William J. Bellows. 



HARRY BINGHAM TO WILLIAM J. BELLOWS. 

Littleton, April 25, 1900. 
Brother Bellows : 

I received your New Year's communication and read it with 
much pleasure. I have been delayed until this late hour from 
acknowledging your favor, so elegantly given, by the irresistible 
reluctance that overcomes me whenever I propose to do any- 
thing involving mental or physical work. I have all along been 
flattered by the delusion that tomorrow I can do it better. But 
you are an old man and I do not need to make excuses ; you know 
how it is yourself. 

The good wishes which you express in my behalf I most 
heartily reciprocate and I hope that the burden of age will con- 
tinue in the future, as in the past, to rest lightly on your shoul- 
ders. 

You seem inclined to express what you have to say, in verse, 
and I congratulate you upon your good fortune in preserving 
the ability to gratify that inclination. It would be hard to se- 
lect a better theme for story or song, than the bar of Grafton 
County as it was 

"When first we practised in the courts some fifty years ago." 

I think you have done the subject justice, touching as you have 
briefly the peculiar merit of each. 

It seems almost as if the old times were coming again and 
scenes that have been enacted are about to be re-enacted. You 
and I, and for that matter, I suppose, all aged people, live in 
the past rather than the present. 

There is little satisfaction in watching and studying the gen- 
erations' now on the stage of action. We see them repeating the 



494 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

follies of our youth and the mistakes of our maturer years. 
"We are surprised at the credulity and stupidity that repeats 
what we have tried and know to be utter foolishness, and we are 
disgusted with the ugliness and false coloring, and the deceptive 
names that have been substituted instead of the plain natural 
way in which they were presented in our times. 

Humanity repeats itself. Experience is a mighty slow teacher, 
and the wisdom it teaches generally comes too late. 

The present and the events it holds in its bosom, whether of 
great or small importance, seem like the passing phantoms of 
a dream and will soon be obliterated from the memory. 

Scenes of childhood, while sitting in our mother's lap or sport- 
ing in thoughtless joyousness, unthought of for years, now come 
before the mind's eye in vivid pictures of lifelike reality. The 
work of our maturer years, the hopes and ambitions in which we 
once indulged, all lie behind us in a confused mass. The friends 
that we loved, our associates and our competitors, are mostly in 
their graves, and the few who remain are like ourselves, tottering 
over their graves and curious about the great beyond. 

Looking back upon our past, I can see nothing more worthy of 
contemplation than the Grafton County Bar, as it was fifty 
years ago. There were Wilcox, Quincy, Bellows, Duncan, Blais- 
deU, Hibbard, Livermore and their associates. They were schol- 
ars, lawyers, and gentlemen. There was sport in those days like 
unto which I can now see nothing. 

I have now been prosy and dull long enough probably to tire 
you all out, and wishing you great peace and happiness, I will 
close, 

Very sincerely yours, 

Haery Bingham. 



APPRECIATION. 



[The following words of appreciation have been contributed for pres- 
entation in this volume by men most qualified to discuss the character 
and abilities of Mr. Bingham, aside from those who were heard at the 
bar meeting when the eulogies in his honor, elsewhere presented, were 
delivered. Judge Smith is the only survivor of those who sat upon the 
Supreme bench when Mr. Bingham was at the zenith of his professional 
career. Mr. Parker was his political and professional associate for a 
generation. Mr. Chandler was his leading political antagonist, in and 
out of the Legislature, and had ample occasion to know and respect 
his ability and resources. Mr. Samuel C. Eastman was a legislative 
reporter during the stormy sessions in war and "reconstruction" times, 
when Mr. Bingham was a central figure on the minority side in the 
House. Attorney-General Edwin G. Eastman studied law in the "North 
Country" with the late Judge A. P. Carpenter, who was Mr. Bingham's 
intimate associate, and also well knows the respect entertained for his 
great abilities by the profession throughout the state.] 



By Hon. Jeremiah Smith, LL. D. 

When Harry Bingham died a great and commanding figure 
passed from the New Hampshire bar. His was a distinct per- 
sonality, a man strong in brain and strong in body; of positive 
views, and with a courage which enabled him to stand, if need 
be, alone. 

For many years an acknowledged leader of the bar, he was 
not a mere lawyer. He believed that a man could not be fit for 
the highest class of practice if his reading was confined to law 
books. He once advised a student in his office to drop his law 
books and make a study of English history, as a necessary prepa- 
ration for the study of law. Mr. Bingham had a very clear idea 
of the fundamental propositions of law, which are the starting 
points for all discussion of specific legal questions. And his 
powerful and logical mind enabled him to work out sound con- 



496 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

elusions from his premises. His mental processes were not 
rapid; but they were thorough. 

A stranger might sometimes have seen Mr. Bingham engaged 
in a jury trial without suspecting the latent power of the man. 
He was always slow, and occasionally heavy and dull. But when 
he was thoroughly roused a spectator felt that he was witnessing 
a great man in action. There was in him a total absence of the 
arts and tricks of a certain class of jury lawyers. He won his 
cases by main strength ; by the sheer force of a powerful intellect, 
not by stratagem. In this respect he closely resembled the late 
Daniel M. Christie of Dover. Both were great lawyers, and 
both were wholly devoid of tact. In the difficult art of cross- 
examination, Mr. Bingham was not a proficient. He generally 
lost more than he made. I believe that some of his opponents, 
who knew his uniform method, used to refrain from bringing 
out vital testimony on direct examination with the belief that 
"Harry" would be certain to put the questions on cross-exami- 
nation, when answers adverse to the cross-examiner would be 
sure to attract attention. But when Mr. Bingham came to the 
closing argument, he could deal sledge-hammer blows which 
indelibly impressed his views upon the jury. 

Some of Mr. Bingham's best things in court were said off-hand. 
He was once arguing against the reliability of a witness named 
P. W. Hastings. He applied to him all the objurgatory epi- 
thets in the English language, and then came to a dead halt 
because there was nothing left to be said by way of climax. 

"He is false, he is untrustworthy, he is perjured, he is " 

then after a long pause he pulled himself together, and added, 
"After all, gentlemen of the jury, no words describe him better 
than the words P. W. Hastings." [No italics can express the 
scorn and contempt with which the name was pronounced.] 

No man of his time was capable of making a better argument 
at the law term. But Mr. Bingham often made the then com- 
mon mistake of omitting special and careful preparation. Hence 
he did not come up to the uniformly high level of Alonzo P. 
Carpenter, who, in his day, was altogether the best arguer of 
cases at the law term. But when Mr. Bingham put forth all his 
power he came fully up to the Carpenter standard. Such an 



APPRECIATION. 497 

instance was the argument in Clark v. Whitaker, 50 N. H. 476, 
heard at Haverhill in January, 1871. The amount in dispute 
was small, but the case raised an important question of com- 
mercial law. Mr. Bingham first stated with great exactness the 
elementary legal proposition involved; and then worked out the 
logical conclusions from the premises. His argument, which 
probably did not occupy more than ten minutes, had all the 
clearness and cogency of a geometrical demonstration. 

The most thrilling language I ever listened to from Mr. Bing- 
ham was at the conclusion of his argument before the law court 
in December, 1886, in the great case of Dow v. Northern B. B., 
67 N. H. 1. The types can here reproduce only the words, but 
not the vehement personality of the speaker. No one who heard 
them uttered can have forgotten the effect produced. 

The counsel for the defence had made what Mr. Bingham 
regarded as an unwarrantable attack upon his client, Mr. Dow, 
At the close of the argument Mr, Bingham referred to this 
attack, and said (I quote from memory) : "There was a great 
battle before the Legislature as to the enactment of the statute 
now under consideration. My client, Captain Dow, made a 
strong fight against it, but a powerful combination carried it 
through. Captain Dow is present here today in this court room, 
a reputable citizen of New Hampshire. But I ask you where is 
now the man who was the head and front of the combination 
which prevailed upon the Legislature to enact the statute? 

"Where is ? (giving the name in full). 

A fugitive from justice, an exile in foreign lands." 

From an early day, Harry Bingham was universally styled 
"Judge Bingham." Distinguished as he was at the bar, it was 
probably the general feeling in the profession that the more 
appropriate place for him was the bench. Had he gone upon 
the bench, he would, in those times, have been compelled to sit 
at trial terms as well as at law terms. As a trial judge I never 
thought that he would have been the equal of his brother George, 
a man of quicker perceptions and greater practical sagacity. 
But at the law term, in important cases, he would sometimes 
have delivered opinions worthy to be put in the same class with 
those of Richardson, Parker, Perley, Doe and Carpenter. He 

32 



498 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL, 

had in him the making of a statesman, and would have proved 
especially strong on questions of constitutional law. 

To a newly appointed judge, Mr. Bingham was sometimes 
a troublesome element. He wanted no special favors; but he 
was obviously apprehensive that he would not receive fair treat- 
ment. But after he once became satisfied that the judge was 
absolutely impartial, and that drastic treatment meted out to 
him was applied alike to everybody else, he was contented with 
his lot. He became in at least one instance a warm friend, 
instead of a hostile critic. 

It is impossible to think of Mr. Bingham without recalling 
his intimate friend, Gen. Gilman Marston. Both were blunt in 
manner, and exceedingly plain of speech. As to each "his bark 
was worse than his bite." Both sometimes unnecessarily made 
enemies, but both had hosts of friends. Both were eminent 
lawyers, and both were bachelors. Although both were ardent 
politicians, entertaining diametrically opposite views on national 
politics, they were close friends; and the two men combined had 
a powerful influence in preventing undesirable legislation when 
they served together at Concord. 

"I hate that man with a pure heart fervently," was what an 
old New Hampshire lawyer once said of a professional brother. 
There were men towards whom Mr. Bingham might have said 
the same. But he was not only strong in his enmities, he was 
also strong in his friendships. Beneath his rugged exterior 
there was a warm heart. "The softening influences of age dis- 
cover traits of character which the aggressiveness of manhood 
have obscured." He perceptibly mellowed in later years. To 
his inflnite credit it can be said that in those years those who 
were nearest to him and who knew him best were those who 
loved him most. When at last the strong man was stricken by 
fatal disease, he did not murmur or repine, but instead expressed 
his thankfulness for the good health which he had enjoyed so 
long. 

It may be permitted to a life-long political opponent to express 
his admiration of Mr. Bingham's rigid consistency in adhering 
to what he believed to be correct political principles. He never 
once thought of forsaking principles for the sake of political 



APPRECIATION. 499 

distinction, which he could thus at any moment have obtained. 
But when principle required the sacrifice, he did not hesitate to 
part company with former friends. When, near the close of 
his life, a majority of his party adopted views which he believed 
to be opposed to party tradition and essentially wrong, he, "the 
noblest Roman of them all," stated his grounds of dissent, and 
left the convention. 



By Hon. Hosea W. Parker. 

Nearly all the men in New Hampshire who were contempo- 
raries of Harry Bingham for a long series of years have passed 
on to "that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller 
returns." While there are many now living who knew and ad- 
mired him, they belong to a new generation and view life from 
a different standpoint. We live in an age when great changes 
are constantly going on and the estimate we place upon men is 
subject to this law of change. 

The writer was intimately acquainted with Mr. Bingham for 
more than forty years, and was associated with him in such a way 
as to learn many of his characteristics of mind and heart. That 
he was no ordinary man all who ever knew him will admit. That 
he was great in the highest and best sense of that term, those 
who knew him best sincerely believe. He was endowed by 
nature with those qualities which at once placed him upon a 
higher plane of thought and action than that of most public 
men. He seemed to stand out almost alone in his active life, 
like some giant oak on the hillside, and belonged to that class 
of men represented by Webster, Gladstone and some of the men 
of their time. 

Had Harry Bingham been differently situated, so that he 
could have taken an active part in the councils of the nation, 
he would have stood in the front rank of American statesmen. 
Since the days of Webster, Mason and Woodbury, New Hamp- 
shire has not produced his equal in all that stands for strength 
of character and real greatness. He was thoroughly conversant 
with the political history of our country, and had studied and 



500 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

mastered its fundamental principles. There never has been a 
time in the history of the Republic when the services of such 
men were so much demanded in national affairs, as they are 
today. When we see the fundamental principles of the govern- 
ment, as set forth in the Federal Constitution, and as inter- 
preted by the early statesmen, gradually undermined by parti- 
sans and politicians of the present day, for the purpose of se- 
curing party ends, the true patriot turns instinctively to the 
wise counsels of such men as Harry Bingham. 

In politics he was a Democrat, but in no narrow or mere 
partisan sense. He was a Democrat in the highest and best 
sense, in all that this term implies. Constituted as he was, it 
would have been impossible for him to have been otherwise. He 
believed in that kind of Democracy which Jefferson taught, and 
which fashioned and moulded the Republic in its early days, in 
contra-distinction to the teachings of Hamilton and those of his 
school of politics. It would be better to say that he was a true 
American, and believed that this is a government "of the peo- 
ple, for the people, and by the people. ' ' 

It is to be regretted that a man of such commanding ability 
could not have occupied a seat in the United States Senate, or 
on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, where 
his great ability could have had full scope, for he was well 
qualified for either of these positions, and without doubt he 
would have reflected great honor upon the state and nation had 
he occupied either, 

"Sage he stood, 

With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
The weight of mightiest monarchies, his look 
Drew audience and attention still as night 

Or summer's noontide air." 

By force of circumstances his life-work was confined to New 
Hampshire, but he was well equipped for a much broader field 
of action. If partisanship could have been laid aside and he 
could have occupied the place that his abilities so well qualified 
him to fill, he could and would have rendered a service to the 
state which has never been surpassed. 

It has been said that "Republics are ungrateful." However 



APPRECIATION. 601 

this may be, it is often the case that those who by natural en- 
dowment and by education are best fitted to occupy responsible 
positions in state and nation are passed by, and others less 
qualified are pushed to the front. Mr. Bingham was modest and 
never made any effort to place himself in the front rank, or 
supplant any of his associates. He was not only the best type of 
an American patriot, but he was a great lawyer. To be a great 
lawyer, and all that this implies, a man must have high ideals, 
a keen sense of justice, and an unswerving honesty of purpose. 
Harry Bingham had all these qualities in a remarkable degree. 
He was thoroughly honest and was possessed of a clear and 
strong sense of right. His best thought and highest ambition 
was to secure justice between man and man. Without those 
qualities, whatever may be the apparent success of a lawyer, he 
is not the kind who will leave a lasting impression upon the 
minds and hearts of his fellowmen. But Judge Bingham pos- 
sessed all of these attributes in a very remarkable degree, and in 
addition was thoroughly grounded in the principles of common 
law, supplemented by extensive and varied reading and study. 
"When he stated a legal principle in court, it carried with it all 
the force of a demonstration. It was stated in such a manner 
that its truth was apparent. Its force did not seem to be de- 
rived from the books, so much as from the man himself. He 
was a lawyer by nature and intuition, with the added force of 
sound learning. It was natural that such a man should choose 
a judicial career. Although he was a lawyer, he was not always 
hemmed in by the demands of his profession. No lawyer was 
more thorough in all of his investigations of legal principles and 
the New Hampshire law reports have been enriched by his 
briefs and his interpretations of the law. He had the utmost 
confidence in and respect for the principles of the common 
law. At times he might have been too conservative in his in- 
terpretation of legal principles. 

He had little respect for some of the modern methods of law- 
yers and their practice. There was no commercialism in the 
practice of the law by Mr. Bingham, and he was above all the 
arts and intrigues which too often enter into the practice of the 
law by many lawyers. His whole life was moulded in a differ- 



502 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

ent school of thought and action. It was impossible for him to 
move in a narrow channel. He needed the broad ocean upon 
which to sail. 

Such a lawyer must be a power in the community where he 
resides and his influence extends far and wide. Not only the 
rights of individuals, but the perpetuity of the government it- 
self depend upon the administration of the law by this class 
of men. Lawyers have been and are today important factors 
in governmental affairs in state and nation. They are the con- 
servators of the public peace, and stand for the welfare of the 
people. The legal abilities of Harry Bingham have been recog- 
nized not only by the bar, but by the court. His life and char- 
acter have left a lasting impression throughout the state, and 
his example is worthy of imitation by all those who have chosen 
the law as their profession. 



By Hon. William E. Chandler. 

Mr, Bingham was unquestionably a great man intellectually. 
He had a wonderful faculty for accurate reasoning on difficult 
questions like that of Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice Marshall, 
Benjamin R. Curtis, Caleb Cushing, Jeremiah S. Black, John 
6. Carlisle, Ira Perley, Gilman Marston and other jurists of that 
kind — direct, unomate, effective, unsurpassable by the powers 
of any other class of English or American lawyers. If he had 
lived in a larger commonwealth and therefore had taken part in 
the discussion of more important questions than any in which he 
engaged in New Hampshire, he would have become renowned 
throughout the nation. 

Moreover, he was an upright and true man in every relation of 
life. It is impossible to conceive of him as evasive or deceitful 
on any occasion, and he never believed that such conduct was 
called for by his duty to any client. So he was brave and strong 
in each event of life. Among the powerful men whom I have 
carefully observed or directly encountered, Mr. Bingham stands 
as one of the greatest, and he should be recorded on the list of 
New Hampshire's noblest and most to be revered citizens. 



APPRECIATION. 503 

Proof of his intellectual greatness may be found in the ex- 
traordinary attainments fully recognized as lawyers of his broth- 
ers, Judge George A. Bingham of New Hampshire and Judge 
Edward F. Bingham of Ohio, chief justice of the District of 
Columbia, 

My acquaintance with Mr. Bingham began shortly before our 
meeting in the New Hampshire Legislature in the war times of 
1862, 1863, and 1864. Like so many public men, he believed that 
not only should the compromises of the Constitution as to slavery, 
be fully and properly obeyed, but that there should be no effort 
on the part of the opponents of slavery to alter the Constitution. 
So believing and so obeying, he refused to change his political 
attitude as to slavery even after the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise and the beginning of the attempts to force slavery into 
Kansas and thus increase the number of slave states. Eemain- 
ing thus unchanged, he fought as his strong nature impelled him, 
in company with other notable northern men against the new 
policy adopted by Mr. Lincoln and the Republican leaders — 
that of destroying slavery as well as saving the Union in the 
War of Secession, began by the South at Fort Sumter. In this 
course he and most of his associates were guided by their con- 
victions of duty. It was my privilege in the affairs of New 
Hampshire to oppose to the uttermost their pleas and efforts, 
while I always regarded them as sincere and honest and unsel- 
fish in their political action. My personal relations and friend- 
ship were never impaired as to Harry Bingham and John G. 
Sinclair by our political differences. 



By Hon. Samuel C. Eastman. 

Harry Bingham was not a young man when he was first 
elected to represent Littleton in the New Hampshire House of 
Representatives. His mind was mature and he was already a 
leader of the bar in his county. He was a member of the minor- 
ity, but was at once accorded by common consent the position 
of leader of his party. 



504 HARRY BINGHAM MEMORIAL. 

So far as his public appearance on the floor was concerned, he 
was an antagonist who could not be neglected and whom it was 
difficult to overcome. He was never agile, and apparently not 
very alert, yet nothing escaped his attention. He was always 
in his seat during the sessions. When anything came up that 
he felt should be opposed or defended, he could be depended on 
to rise to the emergency. He never spoke rapidly, but on the 
other hand, he wasted few words. He seemed at first as if he 
was thinking out aloud and finding his way through the matter 
he was discussing. As he went on, it was apparent that he had 
either laid out his plan before he rose, or that a logical order was 
the natural course of his mind. He had no occasion to turn 
back at any time, but his points were made, one by one, in such 
a way that his hearers could hardly fail to understand them, 
and could not forget his argument. 

As a legislator, on all matters that were not political, he was 
anxious to do what he thought was for the welfare of the state. 
A project that did not seem to him just, presented by a political 
friend, had no better chance of success than if it came from an 
adversary. On political questions, he was an unswerving de- 
fender of the principles of the Democratic party. Here he 
might be said to have been a zealous and even a bitter partisan. 
At the time of the attempt to veto the soldiers' voting bill, 
when Mr. Sinclair, a more subtile if not so strong a man as Mr. 
Bingham, brought in the message of Governor Gilmore, because 
Mr. Tenny, the secretary of state, could not be found, and 
William E. Chandler, the speaker, refused to receive it, and a 
session of earnest protest on the part of the Democrats, verging 
at times on violence, but fortunately escaping it, ensued, he 
took a vigorous part, joining with his powerful bass voice in 
the cries of ''revolution! revolution!" 

When he ceased to represent Littleton, a power for good was 
taken away from the legislative hall. 



APPRECIATION. 505 

By Hon. Edwin G. Eastman. 

As to the character and ability of the late Hon. Harry Bing- 
ham, I can add very little to what has, undoubtedly, been so well 
and truly said by others. I remember very well the first time I 
saw him. It was on a cold day in December, 1862, when, with my 
father, I stopped at the hotel at Haverhill Corner. Judge Bing- 
ham was in the hotel office at the time, engaged in the discus- 
sion of the political affairs of the day, with others who were sit- 
ting about the hotel waiting for dinner. I do not recall much 
that was said, probably did not understand the full scope of the 
conversation; but the question under consideration seemed to 
relate to the power of the states, and a man present undertook 
to relate what was done by the original thirteen states; where- 
upon Mr. Bingham, good naturedly, told him that he knew noth- 
ing about it, and challenged the speaker to name the original 
thirteen states. The man then replied that he didn 't know much, 
but he was sure of one thing, and that was that Vermont (Mr. 
Bingham's native state) was not one of them; that in those 
days Vermont was one of the back districts of New York. 

I did not see him again until I went to Grafton County to 
read law. In those days I saw him frequently in court and some- 
times at the office of Judge Carpenter. I was impressed with 
his accurate knowledge of the elementary principles of the com- 
mon law and his ability to apply those principles in a correct, 
powerful and accurate way to the cases which he was called 
upon to consider. In vigor of intellect, no man at the New 
Hampshire bar, since my acquaintance with it, has surpassed 
him. In politics he was affiliated with the minority party, but 
no fair minded man will say that if he had been placed in posi- 
tions which his great ability and character qualified him to 
fill, he would not have acted fairly, honestly and for the best in- 
terests of his state and nation. 



SEP 17 1910 



